


Knights and Officers

by Ms_Faker



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Polyamory, Slow Burn, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-11 05:55:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13517952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ms_Faker/pseuds/Ms_Faker
Summary: "no one who does wrong, sees themselves as an evil without cause. But rather as a necessary evil, for the greater good of all." Things were not supposed to end this way, none of this was supposed to happen, but it did. The First order rules the galaxy, and every emperor needs someone to rule by his side.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You can come join me on the blog I made for this story, on tumblr. I'll be posting a few fan arts, and information about the story there.  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/inswhitefang

  
All hail the Supreme leader

  
“Captain Peavey I leave you in command of the bridge, ensure that whoever is onboard receives the order to evacuate, and retreats to the Finalizer!”

  
These are the first words that leave Hux’s lips, and the first thing the last living members on the bridge of the Supremacy heard after the resistance cruiser rammed them and split their ship in half. The captain who was being addressed is still on the ground shell shocked, with a deep and large gash on his head, which is oozing blood faster and more swiftly than what was deemed safe.

  
Captain Peavey is not man who is easily shocked, or affected by the destruction of war, or pain. But after being thrown off his feet and hurled into a counsel like a ragdoll, and after the loud bang that left his ears ringing in pain, he could not help but be frozen in fear, and shaken from what just happened. He remembers looking at the resistance cruiser turning to face them, and he remembers the terror he felt at the realization of what they had planned to do he also, remembers hearing Hux’s barking orders to destroy the ship before it could do what it intended. He remembers everything that happened, and yet he could not understand or process what was going on at the moment. He could vaguely hear someone calling out his name but he could not understand anything the voice was saying.

  
The captain was not the only one who is suffering from the same confusion and shock, there are countless others on the ground who are also suffering from injuries, and many others in fact are still on the ground with much more extreme wounds than the captain’s, and quite a few are on the ground either dead or unconscious.

  
Only seconds after being rammed the bridge is shrouded in utter chaos and panic. People are screaming from pain, fear, and shock, and the once prestigious men and women of the First order are running around like utter madmen. All of them have succumbed to their survival instincts and terror, all except for one man.

  
General Hux, the man in charge of the bridge is the only one that is standing confident, composed, and impeccable as if no scrap of debris dare touch the man. Even the other officers, who are much older than the young general, are nowhere near as level-headed nor as confident as him. Despite his young age their general has always been an epitome of command, and a great example of what a man who leads battalions should behave.

  
Hux’s composed, and confident demeanour was so shocking that no one really noticed how shocked the man truly was. That, despite being a true example of composure to his men, Hux is still in shock and he can feel the slight hint of fear. And how could he not? Their ship the Supremacy, the most powerful and biggest ship in their navy has just been rammed and cut in two, right before his eyes. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t over come in fear when he saw what the blasted, suicidal cruiser was planning to do.

  
When the ship was hit, he could feel the impact resonate through his very being, as if it was he who had been hit rather than the ship. And even now he can still feel the brunt of the impact resonate through his bones, and what’s worse he can feel pain pool around his left kneecap where he had fallen when the ship was hit. No one had noticed him fall since he quickly got back up after the whole ordeal passed, and Hux refuses to ben his knee to alleviate the pain.

  
The pain is so strong, that he is sure that considerable damage must have been done to the area, but he still refuses to wail like a child, as his subordinates are currently doing. They are First order officers, not common civilians. Even in a time of utter chaos and pain they must still straighten their back in pride, and show everyone their exemplary composure that puts them apart from any other military force in the galaxy.

  
But it’s not just the appearance that matter he also, has too much to do to focus on his meagre injury. He still has to ensure that every living being on the ship receives the order of evacuation, and he needs to check on the Supreme leader. The later responsibility is the one of the two he has to oversee personally; as a general of the First order he needs to see if the Supreme leader is still alive, and help him if he needs his assistance.

  
The evacuation protocols can be led by the next in rank, which in this case happens to be the captain. That is if said captain would get his head straight and resume command of his senses and the bridge, then maybe he can make his way to the throne room.

  
Hux exasperated, and quickly running out of time walks to the shocked captain who is still on the ground, and who hadn’t even heard his command.

  
Every step Hux takes towards the captain is filled with pain, and he knows that he is limping considerably. But apart from limping which he could not avoid, he refuses to show any other form of discomfort, or pain show in either his face, or posture. He despises appearing weak in front of anyone, but thankfully no one is paying attention to him to see his weakened state.

  
‘Even in chaos, a man who leads must always be the epitome of command’ those are the words his father had told him when he was still in the academy, they are words of advice that have aided him throughout his life, and the words that will help him today.

  
Having walked over debris and the occasional body either dead or unconscious, when Hux finally reaches the captain he looks down at the man who isn’t even looking at him or even noticed him.  
Peavey’s eyes are unfocused and quickly wondering about not really looking at anything in particular. This is a clear sign of shock and Hux knows this because he has seen it often. Being a soldier in a war exposes them to things they would rarely see outside of war, and this level of shock is one of those things they see often

  
Before Hux does anything he looks down at the captain disgusted and outraged. In his eyes, only merger soldiers like the lower officers and Stormtroopers are allowed to get in such a state, anyone ells who holds more power should know and be trained better than that. And Peavey specially, should know better. The man has always talked about keeping face in a time of chaos, and here he was on the floor like a child.

  
Wanting to, but not really having the time to bring his words up and throw them at his face. Hux kneel, and hisses slightly unable to stop it due to the immense pain that was coming from his knee, and the pressure he was putting on it. Hux looks at the man in front of him to see if he noticed him hiss in pain, but thankfully the captain is still too shocked to even notice, or care.

  
In his time at the academy, and as a member of the First order he has seen and dealt with shock before and therefore, he knows how difficult it can be to free someone from that state. One must be gentle when attempting to bring the out of shock that is what he was taught, but right now he does not have the time to be gentle, nor does he care to spare the captain from any further trauma.  
So Hux does the most obvious thing, he grasps the captain’s shoulders with a tough grip and he shakes him harshly, trying to jolt the man from the shock.

  
That didn’t seem to work, since Peavey’s eyes are still glazed over but at least he is now looking at him, but not comprehending. “Peavey snap out of it man! You have duties to uphold” he says harshly, and shakes him once more. But again the captain does not respond and still looks at him shocked and confused, so Hux had to move on to the only thing he knows will work.

  
Hux raised his hand high, and slaps the man strongly. The captain’s head snaps to the opposite side of where the blow had landed, and he yelps in pain. Hux not waiting for the man to regain conscience slowly and steadily shakes him again, and the captain turns to look at him again with comprehensive eyes that are filled with great loathing and anger, but also fear.

  
“Hux you bastard! How dare you slap me, you-“ before the captain can finish his sentence, Hux grasps his neck and applies a small amount of pressure, just enough to stop the man from speaking, this causes the man’s eye to widen and look at the general in fear, anger, and indignation

  
“Captain I don’t know if you have noticed but our cruiser has been rammed, and incapacitated. As captain of this ship it falls to you to initiate evacuation procedures, and ensure that all living personnel, and troops get out of this ship safely, do you understand?” he asks harshly, and with a deathly tone.

  
Hux sees Peavey’s eyes change from anger and indignation to those of utter fear, and comprehension.

  
Hux let’s go of the man’s neck, seeing as the man has finally come to grasp the situation. “But you are the general sir. It should be you who oversees evacuation” says the man with a hint of distrust, and disbelief that their general was leaving them when he is needed the most.

  
Hux stands up slowly due to his injured knee, but he refuses to showcase any sound of discomfort this time around, seeing as the captain is no longer in shock. So when he is finally on both feet he looks down at Peavey, and notices that the wound on his head has clogged and stopped bleeding.

  
Well at least now he knows that the man won’t faint from blood lose halfway through evacuation. “Do not presume that I don’t know my duties captain. When I entrust my duties to you, all you need to know is that other, more extremely important duties demand my immediate attention” he says firmly, and commanding.

  
The captain huffs, but does not say anything, clearly displeased that he has been appointed to carry out Hux’s dirty work, while he goes to attend more important matters. Hux not having, neither the time nor the care, doesn’t say anything and swiftly turns around and walks out of the chaotic bridge, and only the captain seem to notice him leaving.

  
Upon exiting the bridge, Hux comes face to face with the horrific state that the ship is. He can’t help but look around in slight shock. He has seen this level of damage before, and that was in Starkiller. After that event, he would expect it to be easier to walk through such destruction, pain, and death but there was no such luck.

  
As he walks through the destroyed halls he can’t help but feel sickened to the core at the sight of mangled bodies, and be perturbed by the sight of people scramming to safety some of them with missing limbs, and blood trialing behind.

  
He also feels immeasurable loathing for the resistance, this is was and he knows that in war casualties are unavoidable, and he does not care about the death toll of his enemies not one bit. But when his own troops are hurt, and targeted her cares, he might not show it but he cares for his men as any general should.

  
But even though he wishes to help the injured, and take command of the ship, he cannot attend to them; he needs to help the Supreme leader first. So Hux walks through the halls, with a slight limp, but with confidence, and he does not let the destruction waver his demeanour.

  
Hux makes his way to the throne room with a sense of purpose and with the air of a man in command despite the horrors happening around him. Thankfully when he reaches the lift that takes him to the throne room, he finds it still intact. Well mostly intact, the lift had not been fixed after Ren had taken his anger out on it.

  
Hux not wanting to think about the knight, or even caring if he was dead or not, simply walks inside the lift and pressed the number key that activates the lift.

* * *

 

  
The throne room is a mess of debris and the dead bodies of the Praetorian Guard. Sparks from the destroyed ship fly dangerously to the floor, several parts of the ceiling are still falling, and the few lights still working are flickering attempting to stay on.

  
Out of the whole ship, apart from the part that got slices in half, this is the area that suffered the most damage. The throne room is after all, extremely close to where the cruiser was rammed.

  
Upon entering the throne room, Hux in all honestly was hopeful that everyone in the throne room had been killed, and most especially Snoke, or even better Re. That way he could take the throne and no one could question it and contest it. He had been so hopeful that he was already planning his course of action, which involved chasing the resistance and annihilating them.

  
‘surely no one could survive this’ or so he thought, until his eyes had set upon the figure of Kylo Ren, that appears unconscious, and bleeding profoundly from his left arm which is missing it’s hand and part of the forearm.

  
Hux was astounded, but what truly astonished him was not the body of Supreme leader Snoke that was cut in half, by a lightsaber by the looks of it. No what had surprised him was the third other person who is unconscious and bleeding profoundly from a gash on her face, and from her right arm which hand’s was completely missing like Ren’s. Hux did not even know the girl was onboard the ship, and this unnerved him that not only the traitor, and another rebel filth had got on the ship without him knowing, but also the desert rat.

  
Upon looking at the three figures, one dead and the other two unconscious, Hux did not care, that both force users are bleeding to death most especially Ren, nor did he care that the Supreme leader is dead most likely by the hand of one of the two, he didn’t even care what they were doing that had torn their arms clean of, and had killed the supreme leader in the process.

  
No Hux does not care about either one of them or Snoke, what he cared about is killing Ren, and the desert rat before either of them wakes up which he doubts seeing their horrible wound. But he cannot take his chances, they are force sensitive and for all he knew they could grow back another hand with their strange powers.

  
So without hesitation Hux had slowly moved his hand for his blaster to put a hole on Ren’s head first, and rid the First order and the galaxy from the impertinent brat.

  
But Hux had no such luck; Ren had woken up just when Hux had put his hand on his blaster, and the knight had shoot up to his feet so quickly that Hux couldn’t help but be startled by the man’s actions, that despite the bleeding the man still had enough energy to wake up, and shoot up to his feet like nothing happened.

  
Before Ren’s shocked eyes came upon him, Hux had moved quickly and removed his hand from his blaster knowing that he won’t be able to kill Ren now, and this brings him great disappointment, and loathing for the man.

  
So Hux keeping up with appearance asked him what happened. He was trying to keep his hate for the knight at bay, and his disappointment that he wasn’t dead from his voice, this proved to be quite difficult however. Ren had responded simply with ‘the scavenger did it,’ he did not hesitate to blame the desert rat which Ren had not yet even noticed was still unconscious and bleeding in the throne room.

  
Ren had been quick, and so certain in his words that very few people would have questioned it, But Hux being a master at reading people, easily caught Ren’s slight discomfort and fear when he blamed the Jedi, and Hux knew then and there that it had been him who killed Snoke.

  
But in the end Hux does not care, who had killed Snoke, and quite frankly did not care that Ren has just committed the highest act of treason anyone in the first order could commit.

  
But when Ren had told him with all certainty that he was taking the role of Supreme leader, Hux could not help but fill himself with rage for the man. How dare he presume to take the throne, and the armies that belong to him? Ren isn’t even part of the First order; he was simply the rabid dog of Snoke. He is a powerful, yet unbalanced weapon that the First order uses whenever they can’t complete a task. And yet here he is assuming the role of their supreme leader.

  
Hux could not help but feel utter rage, in levels he has not felt since his time in the academy-no, not even then, he has never felt so much anger in his life.

  
This rabid dog dared take the throne from him? He, who formed the Stormtrooper program from scratch, and played a large part in bringing the order from the darkness, and exile, and into the galaxy once more, he, who came up with the idea to build Starkiller, and who ordered the Hosnian system’s destruction, and in doing so obliterated the new Republic. And it is he who now has the last remaining members of the resistance running for their lives with their tails between their legs, and he who will bring about the complete destruction of the resistance, and bring new order to the galaxy.  
No Ren will, and cannot assume the role of supreme leader. And without thinking and with no grasp of his control he had told Ren just that. He raged at the man, much like a child did to an unfair situation but Hux did not care he is way past formalities, and keeping up with appearances. But Hux could not complete his rant, because Ren had choked him with his powers and forced him to his knees, much to his great dislike.

  
In the past Ren had never before used his powers against him; he did not dare seeing as Snoke found him to be quite useful, and would punish Ren for hurting the weaker man in any way. But now with Snoke gone, Ren had no reason to stay his hand now that his handler is dead.

  
Hux is not a man prone to fear, and much less one that allows his fears to get in the way of his duty. And that being said, there are only very few occasions he has felt the uncontrolled fear that keeps your muscles froze, and rooted to the spot, as he did when he was on his knees in front of Ren. Hux only remembers two other occasions that made him feel like he did at that moment, two events in his life which he much rather forget.

  
The knight kept chocking him for a long while, and Hux’s face only turned redder and redder from the lack of oxygen and his face is contorted to one of pain and fear. When Ren did not stop chocking him, he was sure that he was going to kill him and Hux could not help but widen his eyes and shake from fear. He was going to die on his knees by the hand of the knight he so hated, and there was not a thing he could possibly do to stop it. And yet, despite the fear and the shock he refuses to give Ren the satisfaction of seeing him beg for his life, if he is to die then he will accept it. And at that thought he was almost overcome with the peace with the acceptance of death, until he remembers the state that their ship is in, and the state that the First order is in right now. He can see his men bleeding to death on the bridge, and the Stormtrooper dead by the masses.

  
He cannot die here; the First order still needs him to chase after the resistance and annihilate them. And if Ren is to be the Supreme leader, the order needs him to at least keep some form of order.  
No, he cannot die here, there is simply too much to do for him to die. And so when Ren tightened his hold on his neck and said something he could not quite catch, Hux had no choice but to say the only thing he knew would appease the brute. “Long live the Supreme leader” he manages to say through his tightened throat.

  
As he knew he would, Ren quickly let’s go of Hux’s throat, satisfied that Hux has accepted the situation, and will not question it for now.

  
When the general was finally able to breathe, he could not help but fall on his hands and cough uncontrollably. His throat feels like it’s on fire, and everything around him seems to be tilting on its axis.  
He is very close to fainting, from the pain both on his neck and knee. But he manages to stay conscience, and he soon manages to regulate his breathing once more, with great difficulty.

  
It is after, he is able to breath normally, and the room stops spinning around him that he looks up at the knight expecting to see him attending to his wound, but what he saw instead baffled him.  
Kylo Ren was on one knee with the unconscious scavenger propped on his knee and held tightly and almost tenderly in his arm. The knight was attending to the woman’s arm, and he was doing that by stopping the bleeding with a torn piece of his cloak. When Hux turned his eyes to look at the man’s similar wound, he sees that his arm is still uncovered and unattended, but notices that it has stopped bleeding slightly.

  
When Hux’s eyes land on the knight’s face, he sees as expression he has never seen on the man before, and that is concern, and fear. Hux could not help but look at the man confused, and intrigued that a mere desert rat was getting this reaction from the man he thought was only capable of feeling anger.

  
After looking at Ren for a long while, the knight turns away from the Jedi and looks at Hux sensing his eyes on him. Ren’s face is dangerously pale, and his eyes appear sunken by lack of sleep. Overall he looks like he is very close to fainting and he knows that he would have already done so, had it not been for his sheer determination.

  
When Ren’s eyes focus on his own, he wipes all traces of concern and fear from his eyes and replaces it with anger and conviction. “We have lingered here far too long, we still need to catch the resistance, and destroy them” he says exhausted, yet determined. He wants to catch the resistance? Hux may hate the man, but even he has to admit that the man is a force to be reckoned with. That even despite being gravely injured and exhausted he would still want to go a fight their enemies, well it was something to behold.

  
Hux eyes follow the man as he stands up with great difficulty, and wobbly legs. His body struggling with the weight of the woman propped on his good arm, and on his injured arm which is still bleeding somewhat. Ren looks paler than before, the adrenaline surge he had before, seems to have completely left his body, and what little strength her had before seems to have been used up on Hux.

  
But despite looking like a walking corpse, he does not relent and keeps his hold on the scavenger tucked in his arms. The man looks down at Hux with determined eyes, a huge contrast to hwo the man looks. “Did you not hear me general? We have to leave, unless you wish to perish with the ship I suggest you stand up and follow me” he hisses through his teeth, and Hux could tell that he was having slight difficulty talking.

  
Hux eyes widened slightly, he did not realize that he was still on his knees; he had been too confused, and distracted at looking at Ren caring for the desert rat, that he did not even notice the enormous pain on his knee.

  
Hux quickly stands up, and in his hurry his knee spasm distraught by the movement they just performed. Hux hisses out in pain, but thankfully Ren does not comment about it, and he simply turns around and walks to the lift. His steps are slow from the pain emanating from his arm, and from the weight of the girl on his arms.

  
Hux without thinking and not really wanting to at this point simply follows the new Supreme leader to the lift. When he entered the lift he punches in the numbers to the hangar level, and the doors softly slide shut.

  
As the lift slowly moves lower and lower, neither man turn to look, or speak at each other. Neither of them knowing, how drastically their lives, and those of countless others would be changed by the events that just took place.


	2. To the Finalizer

 

            Hux is truly not having a good day; he has had days like these where everything that can go wrong goes wrong. When _Starkiller_ base was destroyed, he thought that, that would be crux of his career. He thought that the destruction of his life’s work would be the worst event of his life, and that nothing worse could happen again.

But alas he was incredibly wrong. The destruction of the _Supremacy_ has to be worst thing that has ever happened to him, worse than the destruction of his precious base, because it is the day that the fate of the First Order was shrouded so tightly by a blanket of darkness that even he could not make out the future of his precious Order.

The destruction of _Starkiller_ was a heavy blow for both the Order and to him personally. But he knew without a doubt that the Order would carry on, without its massive weapon and base. After all it was only a tactical advantage over their enemies, and easier way to rid the galaxy of the Republic. But in the end it was only a base, and even though they lost countless lives to the destruction, it could not compare to what just happened.

Snoke is dead, and Kylo Ren has taken his throne as the new Supreme leader, and he knows that it is only a matter of time, before the uncontrollable man destroys the First Order like he does to everything around him. Ren would destroy, and sabotage everything he worked so hard on, he would consume the entire First Order with his violence, and passion, and there won’t be a thing Hux will be able to do, to stop the man.

And this fills him with dread, uncertainty, and self-loathing that he could not stop the man from taking the throne. And that is because he was brought up with the ideologies of the First Order, and with the belief that everything he ever did, or ever will do is for good of the First Order. This is what they taught him in the academy, or more like drilled into his head until we wouldn’t question it.

And even years later, he still believes this, and now he sees himself with his hands tied behind his back, and unable to stop the First Order from going down the destructive path, that Ren will surely lead them down. And this just goes against everything he has believed in, and everything he has been taught. He needs to do something, but he knows that there is nothing he can do.

He could trick his mind into believing that Ren could become a good Supreme leader, if given the time and patience. But a mind such as his own cannot be easily fooled, he knows better than anyone, that Ren only knows violence, and hatred. How can a man like that even hope to rule such a vast empire? For as long he has known Ren, he has let his lightsaber do all the talking, and he has not hesitated to throw himself down the dark abyss, that only few men have dared venture on.

That is why he was so shocked to see the Knight caring for the scavenger, because the way he sees it Ren is only capable of destruction, and pain. They are both very much alike in that regards and he had to admit it, because he too is prone to destruction like the knight. The difference between the two however, is that Hux knows when, and when not to destroy something.

Hux’s train of thought is quickly snapped when a soft _ding_ snaps the uncomfortable silence of the lift of the _Supremacy._ Hux slightly disoriented, from his thoughts stays behind and allows the new Supreme leader walk out of the lift first without saying a word.

It’s only been a few minutes since Kylo took the throne, and he is already thinking about how Ren will utterly destroy the First Order. And he was already being overcome with hopelessness, so much so that he could already visualize the First Order in flames, with the Resistance dancing around the fire. Hux shakes his head to shake the annoying thought away, and follows closely behind the larger and bigger man who is walking slowly and feebly along the destroyed hangar, which is filled with dead bodies, and people still running to their transports to evacuate. Thankfully, everyone was in such a rush to get to their transports, that they did not notice or even care to look at the weakened state of their General, and the master of the knights of Ren.

Hux limply follows Ren across the hangar, but despite their weakened state, Hux still straightens his back, and looks every bit the general that he is. Kylo on the other hand, bends his back in pain, and exhaustion but he still looks every bit the fearsome darksider. And for a moment Hux could not help but be amused, imagining the picture they must both make? A weakened general, that is still in shock, and a half dead man in front of him, with an unconscious girl in his arms.  

They both keep walking along the hangar, not paying any attention to the other men and women running to their shuttles. They walked, until they came upon Ren’s command shuttle, which is thankfully ready to depart. The ship just needed them on board to leave the destroyed ship behind, and make its way to the _Finalizer_. Hux and Ren without saying a word, make their way the lowered ramp, and enter the command shuttle.

Upon entering the dark and gloomy shuttle, they are both approached by troopers, and two lower officers. Seeing his state one of the troopers runs to Ren to help him out, while the younger of the two officers walks towards Hux, his posture of that of a man revering, as if he could not believe that he was standing in front of the General. Hux did not pay him any attention, and watched Ren and the Stormtrooper instead.

“Sir let me help you” says the trooper lifting his hands up towards the scavenger, ready to take the weight of the girl from the weakened man. But this seems to have been the wrong thing to do, because Ren looks at the man angrily and pushes him away with his powers. The trooper does not fall from his feet, but the shove was strong enough to make him take several steps away from Ren.

Kylo does not look back at the startled trooper, or the annoyed General but simply walks towards one of the empty chairs, and softly with all of the care in the galaxy Ren put the girl gently on the chair. While the knight did this, everyone could not help themselves but look at the man shocked, they had never seen him act or behave so gently before. And it made the wonder who the girl was, to draw this behaviour from the beast.

Ren does not notice, the others looking at him, or he simply does not care, because he slumps down on another chair beside the scavenger, not wanting to be too far from the girl. And it is after a long while that everyone snaps from their frozen state, and the troopers swiftly make their way to their stations ready to take the ship into orbit.

Hux still focused on the Knight, and his behaviour that is becoming more and more peculiar by the second, does not notice the young officer still standing in front of him. “Sir, what about Supreme leader Snoke?” asked the young man. Hux snaps his gaze and attention away from the Knight and looks at the officer that couldn’t help but squirm at having the general’s full attention on him.  

This was the moment he dreaded, the moment he wanted to avoid. He had to tell them that their Supreme leader is dead, and that a rabid dog had taken its place. He did not like it, but he will not hesitate either so he was about to open his mouth to answer the boy, and everyone ells who was listening to them. But Kylo beat him to it, and it’s his voice that breaks the silence “the supreme leader is dead, the role of Supreme leader has fallen to me.”

And there it was the last nail on the coffin, someone knows apart from them, and there is nothing he can do about it now. The troopers and the officers turned to look at him baffled, and waiting for Hux to confirm the Knights answer.

But when Hux didn’t say anything, and turned his gaze away from them almost in defeat, they took it as a confirmation, and they all turned to Ren and bowed their heads in reverence. And Hux could not help but glare at the wall angrily, that reverence should belong to him not the Knight. He spent his whole life working for the First Order, everything he did he did it for their cause, and yet it is Ren someone who was never even part of the Order, who has taken the role of Supreme leader.

Not wanting to think about the horrible situation that the First Order has been put in, or his feelings on the matter, he steps around the young officer who is looking from Ren to him in shock. It is after all no secret that the Knight and the General hold great animosity towards each other, and the young officer no doubt thought that Hux was going to retort and tell Ren to stop spitting out lies. But when the general does not the officer and everyone ells turns back to their posts, not paying any mind to the three new members on the shuttle.

Hux tiered, and in pain walks to a seat near Ren, and the scavenger not having any other choice since all of the other seats were taken by the other officer, and Stormtroopers. They all refused to seat beside the angry and injured Knight, who was looking at everyone like an injured predator ready to strike if they so much as looked at him, or the girl beside him.

Before seating Hux, gives Ren a long look examining him, and making sure that the man won’t lunge at him when he took his seat beside him. When Ren didn’t even look up at him, and kept his eyes trained ahead of him, Hux decided that it was safe to seat beside the man.

As Hux slowly takes his seat, he very nearly bellows in pain from his knee, which now feels like it’s broken. But Hux manages to bit the wail between his lips, but he cannot control the contorted expression on his face. When he finally sat down, on the metal and uncomfortable seat he sighs in relief that he is finally off his feet and seating down allowing his knee to rest.

No one in the shuttle says a word of comfort, or worry for the general who they now know is clearly in pain, they all know better than to question the general or bring up his weakened state, he is a prideful man after all. But the young officer who has never been around the General, or even meet him is the one to bring it up, “Sir are you alright, Do you need any assistance?” asks the boy, and everyone but Ren take a deep breath shocked and worried for the boy.

Hux’s body freezes at the irritating question, but hopefully no one notices but Ren, whose lips twitch slightly in amusement. The General turns his head to look at the officer, and glared at him the same way he does to rebels he is about to condemn to death. He is not angry at the officer offered his help, he is angry at the fact that he thinks that he needs his help. He isn’t some weak man that needs the help of others, much less of someone far below his rank.

“I did not express any need for assistance Lieutenant Kam. I suggest that you never again address a commanding officer, much less a General before being told to specifically” says the General, without a hint of pain, or even anger, but annoyed and exasperated.

Lieutenant Kam’s check blush, and he squirms on his seat uncomfortable “I-I am sorry General. Forgive me” he says frightened, and ashamed that he had addressed the most powerful general in the First Order, in such a familiar way.

 Hux does not say anything and simply looks away from the young officer, who is still blushing and squirming on his seat. And finally the shuttle lifts off and flies away from the ship that is slowly falling apart.

The holding bay where they are all seating at does not have any windows, for them to look out of. And so they do not get a last view of the destroyed _Supremacy_ and Hux believes it is for the best, he rather not look back at another one of his failures, he did back on Starkiller and that had almost broken his resolve. The _Supremacy_ may not be his ship, and he rarely even spent any time onboard the ship, but he had commanded it before. And being the last to command the ship, that made him responsible for its demise, even if the event was completely out of his hands.

There was really nothing he could have done to save the _Supremacy_ and he knew that, even if they caught the rebels plan ahead of time, there was no way they could destroy the ship in time. In the end it was simply just pure bad luck that it had been destroyed, and even worse that it happened when he was the one in command of the ship. But regardless, of what he told himself he still felt responsible of what happened, and there was nothing he could tell himself to change his mind.

As the ship made its way to its destination, no one said a word, or so much as moved. The ship was in relative silence, until for no apparent reason Ren shoots up to his feet, and everyone but Hux nearly jumps to their feat startled by the man’s sudden movement. Hux, and everyone look at the man confused, and shocked that he could still stand on his own two feet despite missing and entire hand, and losing so much blood.

Ren looks around with wide eyes, looking around slightly confused, and then he turns his gaze back to Hux “we are not going to Crait, the shuttle is making its way to the _Finalizer._ ” He says realizing where they are headed.

Hux simply lifts one eyebrow, and looks at the man annoyed ‘ _he still wishes to go down there?_ ’ he thought, and if he had any respect for the man’s bravery, and confidence, now it annoys, and exasperate him that the man couldn’t see the more important problems they had at hand. Oh Hux, was more than happy to let the knight go down and get himself killed, but since everyone knows that he is the Supreme leader he can’t just let the man walk into battle half dead that would be considered treason, for neglecting his leader’s health and safety.

“Supreme leader, you have lost a great deal of blood, and are in no condition to go into battle. We are heading for the Finalizer for your own safety, and health” he says Ren’s new title mockingly, and the knight notices because his eyes widen in anger. And Hux could tell that he was about to choke him with his own hands, because he no longer had any strength to use his own powers. But when he was about to throttle the haughty General, Ren stops on his track, and his blinks a couple of time, and his eyes roll back and his eyes close, and he fall back down on his seat passing out on the spot.

Everyone gasped, except for Hux who sighed in disappointment that the man had not fallen on his head instead, and killed himself in the process. “Well then, I guess this means that we maintain our course to the Finalizer” he says simply, not looking back at the knight who is now unconscious like the scavenger. And what a picture they both made, two of the most powerful force user unconscious, bleeding to death, and with missing arms to match, it is pitiful.

Thinking about the force users, his mind shifts to the unconscious Jedi. Hux has never seen the scavenger in action before, but he does not need to, to know that she is a powerful and dangerous adversary. She has after all defeated Ren, and gave him the scar on his face, a symbol to his humiliating defeat to the retched scavenger from Jakku, who is untrained din the force.

And yet again, the scavenger has managed to infiltrate their ship without him knowing, and manage to not only survive an encounter with Snoke, but also managed to kill the praetorian guards. Of course the desert rat must have gotten help from Ren this time around, how much? He does not know, but he knows with all certainty that it was Ren who delivered the killing blow to their Supreme leader.

This woman is dangerous, and a threat to everything the First Order stands for and it is only Ren’s obvious care, and infatuation for the rat that keeps him from graving his blaster, and putting a hole in between her eyes. He knows that if he were to do just that, Ren would kill him without a doubt upon waking, so he shrewdly stays his hand for now at least.

The ship continues to fly on towards its destination to the _Finalizer_ and Hux is slightly relieved, that he is going back to his ship, to be in the ship he fully commands. Well he commands a portion of it, he still has to share rule with Ren and Phasma, but now that the Knight is Supreme Leader he now controls more than half of the cruiser.

The _Finalizer_ has always been like his own child to him, just like _Starkiller_ base. He has trained, and moulded most of its crew the way he likes, and the best way they could serve him and the Order. And now that Ren is no longer one of its commanders, he can now fully mould the ship the way he truly wants with the help of Phasma. Hux is glad that at least he has something to look forward to.

When the ship finally arrives on the hangar of the _Finalizer,_ and lands on its respected spot everyone stands up quickly, ready to exit the shuttle, everyone but Hux and the unconscious forcer users. Hux waits for everyone to exit the shuttle to stand up not wanting the others to see him in pain, and not really sure if he can keep himself from crying out in pain.

So when there no longer any officer and troopers left, does Hux slowly stands up using the back of the seat for support. As soon as he put any pressure on his knee, he contorts his face in pain, and cries out in pain not too loudly; since he knows that there are officers and troopers waiting outside. When Hux is finally on his feet, he exhales loudly, and he can feel sweat drip own his neck from all the effort it took to stand up and put pressure on a knee he knows must be fractured by now. ‘Pitiful’ he thinks of his current state, that an injured knee was making him feel this way. He stands on the spot for a few seconds to regain his composure, and his resolve to walk down the ramp unaided, and for the one hundredth time this day he curses the Resistance.

When he is finally composed enough, he makes his way to the ramp not looking back at the desert rat or the knight. As he makes his to the ramp, he notices the usual group of troopers, and officer stationed outside the shuttle respectfully awaiting both him and Ren. There are less than usual, 20 of them station on either side but he does not comment about it, he does not care if they are following the right protocol for greeting a General, or the knight of Ren, the Order has much more important things to focus on than simple protocol. But the only thing that does confuse him is the absence of Phasma, who would always be present.

Hux makes his way down the ramp with a prominent limp, but no one says anything or approaches him to aid him, they simply watch ahead as he makes his way to captain Peavey who is waiting for him with both hands behind his back, and two medical droids with two gurneys for Ren, and the Jedi. Hux nearly smiles at seeing the gurneys, and that they would have to take Ren, and put his unconscious body on it and parade him from the hanger and into the medical bay. Hux smiles inside, at the anger and humiliation Ren will feel after waking up, he might lose some of his equipment to the knight’s rage, but it will be well worth it.

When Hux finally reaches the captain, he first gives all of his attention to the medical droids, aware that Ren is still unconscious, and possibly in danger of dying if they do not attend to him soon. “The Supreme leader Ren is inside the shuttle, he has a severed hand, and has passed out from blood loss. You are to attend to him, and ensure his safety and recovery, as well as that of the women in the shuttle” he commands.

The droids do not look at him or even say anything, they simply move past Hux and into the shuttle with their gurneys floating behind them. Only after the droids have moved away and entered the shuttle does Hux give the captain his undivided attention.

As Hux looks at the man he notices, that the gash on his head has not been attended to yet, but it has been cleaned, and blood has stopped oozing from it. The man is pale from shock, and blood loss, and the expression on his face is one of consternation, and dismay due to the news that Ren is now Supreme leader “Supreme leader Ren?” asks the man with a hoarse voice, from all the yelling he had to do in the bridge no doubt.

“Yes Supreme leader Kylo Ren, and unless you have something important to say on the topic, I suggest you keep quiet. I do not want to speak of the matter just yet” says Hux angrily, and the captain closes his mouth and wipes his confusion from his face, and straightens his back. “I am sorry General; I am just dismayed by the news. But as you said, it will be more prudent to speak of it after the battle is won.” He says clearing his throat, and pulling his captain facade over his face. “My division has informed me that the resistance has made its way to the Planet Crait, just below us. They do not appear to wish to fight us, but rather to hide and run away while they still can” he says business like, with no hint of hoarseness in his voice, or shock.

Hux straightens his back further, and put his hands behind his back. This he can deal with, battle strategies and the complete annihilation of the Resistance; he has experience with this, years and years of it in fact. He rather submerge himself in this, than having to cope and deal with what just happened in the throne room.

And finally he feels a shiver of hope slowly overcome him, they may have lost their Supreme leader, and now have a brute for one instead. But at least the Resistance could destroy today. Hux smiles at the captain, not caring to mask his excitement for the destruction of the Resistance. “This is good; we may yet destroy the Resistance once and for all. I want you to take as many men as you see fit, and lay waste to the Resistance’s base.” He commands.

The captain looks at him with a hint of displeasure that he has to carry out the General’s dirty job once more. But he also sees a great deal of exhilaration, that he has been given such a great honour and opportunity to prove himself to the Order, and finally destroy the pitiful Resistance.

Hux takes a step towards the captain, breaking his train of thought “This is a big opportunity I am giving you Captain; I suggest you do not waste it. I should not have to tell you how displeased I will be if the Resistance manage to get away once more, nor the Supreme leader’s anger” he says stoically, as if he had not just threatened the captain if he failed to destroy the Resistance.

Peavey looks at Hux slightly nervous this time, and he nods his understanding to Hux, and with nothing more to say he walks away from the General to carry out his orders.

Hux looks at the back of the general wanting to follow him, and carry out the destruction of the Resistance himself. His whole life he had dreamed of such a day, and now he finds himself unable to see to it personally. As the general, and the only man brave enough in the whole Order, he has to attend to Ren, and ensure that he does not die, or kill anyone upon waking up.

Hux huffs out his disappointment, and annoyance that he is stuck with such a meagre task. He slowly turns to face the shuttle and the Stormtroopers, and officer, who are not even looking at him. “You are all dismissed, go about your order as you were” he commands with a slightly louder voice, so they can all hear him. The troops salute him and then they file out of the hangar.

Just as the Stormtroopers and officers left the hangar the medical droids come down the ramp with both gurneys in tow, which are occupied by the two unconscious force users. When the droids are right beside him, he looks down at both of their faces and notices that they look paler than they did before, and he knows that they are in great need of medical attention and fast. Hux with his hands still behind his back follows the droids out of hangar not paying any mind to the countless officers, and troopers looking at them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a bit slow, and there isn’t that much dialogue, and action in it. It’s mostly setting the scene, and a bit of character development. I swear that next chapter will be better, and there will be a lot more dialogue and conflict. I still have to set the scene, before I can start driving the story along, and I am using the first few chapters for that, but I swear that chapter 3 will have more action.
> 
> (spoilers ahead) Also if you have not figured out yet, this will be a dark Rey fan fiction, just letting you know in case you thought this was a redeemed First Order story, it isn’t. But don’t worry, Rey will not fall to the dark side so easily and will put up her own fight. And the Order won’t be as evil as the resistance make them out to be.


	3. The anger of a composed man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (warning) this chapter has a brief mention of child abuse. And if anyone is uncomfortable with needles, just letting you know before you read this chapter.

"Did you prepare the wound for the new robotic arm yet?” asks Hux irritated from where he was seating on the med bay. It has only been an hour since they arrived on the med bay, and he was already losing his patience. He did not think himself an impatient man; in fact he is very tolerant and patient. He had to- to work, and be around Kylo Ren.

He managed to handle the stress- Ren caused in him-through sheer avoidance of the man, whenever he could. But this situation is different; he needs Ren to be in stable conditions before he can focus on more important matters.

He still could not believe that he- the most important, and influential general of the First Order, is seating in the med bay overseeing the recovery of none other than Kylo Ren, and all while the Resistance is being hunted, and destroyed once and for all. He is sure other, higher rank officers, would laugh at his current predicament.

He couldn’t help but be arranged, the more he thought of the situation. And the more he thought of his current situation, the more he wanted to punch a wall, and the more he wanted to punch a wall to alleviate his frustration, the more he felt like Ren.

When they arrived at the med bay the droids healed Ren first, and they priorities his wellbeing over all others-seeing as he is the Supreme leader and far more important than the Jedi. When he was stable enough-which didn’t take longer than a couple of minutes to do-they moved on to healing the Scavenger much to his distaste. He knew that the desert rat needed to be healed or the Knight would have his head, when he awoke. Knowing this he ordered the droids to heal her, but ensuring that she was in stable health was as far as he would go.

So when the droids asked him if they should install a robotic arm on her, he scoffs at the question. As if he would waste the Order’s resources on a worthless scavenger, he already had to ensure her survival he would not give her anything ells, unless he was specifically order to do so.

The droids asked him if he was certain, they tried to explain to him the danger of waiting to implant a robotic arm, but he simply waved them away. He has seen plenty of severed limbs in his lifetime, and he is aware that waiting so long to implant a robotic arm, can decrease the chances of the nerves to be fully connected to the robotic arm. And this can lead to loss of feeling on the robotic arm. But he does not care one bit if the desert rat cannot feel anything from the extremity in the future-that is if Ren orders the droids to implant a robotic arm on her-which he will do no doubt. But at least in waiting he is ensuring, the Jedi pays for what she has done, it is a small punishment, and a victory but he will take it at least for now.

In the time he spent in the med bay, he had seen the droids move from the Jedi and back to Ren, ensuring that they were both stable. And with nothing ells to do he watched them work on the area around Ren’s severed hand, getting it ready to implant the robotic arm. The droids were working as fast as they could, without endangering Ren or the Jedi. But Hux still taped his foot inpatient to be out of the med bay and in the bridge.

“Yes we are finally ready to implant the arm sir, it should not take much longer to get the arm working” says the medical droid with its monotone voice, turning to away from the Knight to face the annoyed General. Hux nods and sighs in relief, finally he could leave, his duties after all- only go this far. He does not have to seat with Ren, and hold his hand while they implant the new robotic arm.

He does however; know that he should probably stay until Ren wakes up. The knight will no doubt be in a sour mood, and after all of the medication he has just been injected with, he will not be in the correct state of mind to differentiate a control panel over a Stormtrooper. Ren could become a danger to the ship, but just thinking about staying longer made Hux blood pressure spike through the roof.

He will take his chances; there is an entire Resistance to take care of. So long as he keeps two Stormtroopers stationed outside the med bay, and he orders the medical droids to call him as soon as Ren wakes up, there should be no problem with him going to the bridge.

“Good, I want you to carry on without me. I have duties to attend to at the bridge” says Hux relieved that he can leave, and the droid nods and turns back to Ren.

But as Hux begins to stand up, and put pressure on the injured knee he grunts in pain, and falls back on his seat. His face knots in pain, and he feels sweat dribble down his forehead. He had been seating down since he got to the med bay, so he completely forgot his injured knee. Not to mention that he had other important things on his mind.

Hux looks at the medical droid, who has completely turned away from Ren, and is now in front of him, analysing the injury. Hux allows the droid to analyzing the wound, without saying a word. He had also, forgotten to tell the droid that he too was injured; he was too focused on getting the two force users in stable conditions, and on the situation on the Resistance that he did not tell the droid.

When the droid moved his hand towards Hux’s knee, he flinched slightly at the feel of the robotic arm that was touching his injury knee. “I am going to put pressure on your knee, and I need you to tell me if it hurts.”

Hux looks down at the droid worried, and was about to tell him that there is no need to put any pressure to know that the knee hurts. But he was stopped when he feels the light pressure of the droid’s hand squishing his knee, and he almost cries out from the extreme pain- and he would have, were it not for his clenched teeth’s. But as quickly as the pain came, it went away as soon as the droid pulled his hand away from his knee.

Hux looks at the droid with such murderous eyes that if it had been a human doctor rather than a droid, he would have ran away from the mere stare. “I apologize, General but I needed to do that to come to a conclusion in my analysis” says the droid with its monotone voice, moving away from the General, and to a shelf on the far end of the room.

“Well do tell, what have you concluded?” barks Hux angrily, furious at the whole situation than at the droid. He is so irritated, and angry that anything can set him off, even a droid who is trying to do what it was programed to do. The droid does not answer his question, and instead graves a something from the shelf and walks back to where Hux is seated.

“You have a severely sprained knee General; I am surprised that you did not fracture the bone.” Hux looks at the droid stunned, all this pain from a simple sprain? He could not believe that he was so weak as to feel this much pain over a simple ligament injury, for a moment he would rather that his knee was fractured. At least then the pain would be justified.

“I want it fixed as quickly as possible” he says angrily, and almost wanting to ask the droid to double check, to see if his knee was indeed sprained. But he knew that, that would just waste more time, and the droid would just come to the same conclusion.

“Normally I would tell my patients to rest the knee, and take medication. But seeing as you want it fixed as quickly as possible, I will have to inject the knee with this.” It says showing Hux the metallic syringe, and needle he took from the shelf.

 

“This will accelerate the healing process, exponentially but the injection itself is very painful, and it will not completely heal your knee”

Hux’s eyes widened slightly at the syringe. He is not fond of needles, especially when a droid who is void of feeling and a nervous system warns him that the injection will be very painful. But despite his unease, he will take the injection over having to rest the knee without a second thought. His duties outweigh any fear, and unease he may have.

“I could sedate you, to spare you the pain of the injection sir” says the droid, seeing the General’s hesitance. But Hux quickly shakes his head not even thinking it over, and the droid kneels in front of the General with the syringe in hand. “Do what you must, as long as I can be at the bridge in less than twenty minutes, I will not protest” says Hux determined, and without a hint of fear in his voice.

Hux looks away from the droid as it slowly and carefully rolled his pants up bearing his knee. He does not look as the droid prepares the needle not wanting to watch when the needle sinks in his flesh. Just as he is seating waiting to be injected, he could not help but think of a horrible memory he had of the academy.

He remembers, being dragged into a med bay harshly by the arm, by his father. He was practically thrown to a chair similar to the one he was on, and a human doctor mercilessly took his arm and injected him with the biggest needle he had ever seen in his life. He does not remember much, but he remembers crying, and the feel of his numb arm that lasted for an entire week. He knows now that his father had taken him to have a locator chip implanted on him, it was standard protocol back then. But the injection was deemed too painful for young cadets, so officers had their chip implanted on them when they were fifteen-he had only been five.

He is snapped from the memory when he feels, the droid’s hand on his knee again getting ready to inject him. He braces himself on the seat, and awaits the pain that is soon to come.

When Hux’s feels the needle enter the side of his knee, and the medicine slowly entering his knee he shuts his eyes in pain and bites on his bottom lip to keep himself from screaming. His grip on the chair tightens until his knuckles are white from the strain.

The injection, by itself probably isn’t as painful, but due to the tender and injured area that is being injected it makes it hurt a lot more, and oh did it hurt. It felt like his knee was on fire, and like hundreds on needles were stabbing his tender knee. Hux did no notice the droid taking out the needle and moving away from him, the pain was so great that it made no difference with the needle inside his knee or not. A pitiful, pained groan manages to escape his lips, without his permission.

If he wasn’t in so much pain, he would have chastised himself for the slip up, but his mind is far too busy with the pain to care. Only a few seconds went by, but to him it felt like a lifetime. He was sure he was about to lose his composure, and scream in pain, not caring who would hear him. But just then he faintly heard the sound of a package tearing, coming from the droid in front of him, and then he felt a soft and wet bandage being put on top of his knee.

As soon as the bandage touched his knee, he was quickly overcome with relief, as the pain dulled significantly until it only felt like a bad bruise rather than a sprain. Hux sighs in relief, and slumps back on his seat letting go of it.

He was exhausted, as if he had run from the tail of the _Finalizer_ to the bridge. He relaxed slightly, and allowed the droid to wrap his knee in soft bandages. It only took a few seconds, but he relished the relaxing moment.

As soon as his knee was completely bandaged taken care of, the droid unrolled his pant sleeve down. “You may stand and go about your duties sir. But I ask that you try to rest the knee as much as possible, and to come to the med bay in three days for a check-up. I will tell one of the droids to bring your medication and their instructions to your chamber” says the droid monotone, and walking away from Hux and back to the unconscious Knight.

Hux remains seated on the chair, giving himself a few seconds to compose himself again. He still had much to do, so he does not remain seated for very long.

Hux stand up hesitantly, using the seat for support. His knee still hurt, but not nearly as much, as it did before. It was healed enough that at least standing and walking would be bearable, but he knows that he cannot stay up for long periods of time.

Hux walks away from his seat with a slight limp, and heads to the refresher to tidy himself up before heading to the bridge.

Hux had not seen the state that he was in, so when he finally got a look of himself in the mirror, he was surprised. He had not been himself in such a state in a very long time.

His usually tidy and slicked back hair is a complete mess and slumped down on his forehead, and his paler than usual complexion makes his eyes look more sunken and more tiered than usual. His skin is also covered in a slim wall of sweat. Overall he looked disgusting and undignified.  

But the worse thing about his current appearance had to be his uniform, which is dotted with a few drops of dried blood. He himself was not bleeding, but he had touched and been around people that were.

He meets the eyes of the shocked and slightly terrifying man in the mirror and he is over come with anger. Not only had Ren taken the throne, but he also had to ruin his precious uniform too? He knows that it is not entirely the Knight’s fault, but still-he hated the man enough to unreasonable blame him for everything.

Not having much time to waste, and not really wanting to keep looking at himself in the mirror-Hux graves a towel from a hanger, and takes it to the sink which thankfully  is a water one, and not sonic, and wets the towel. He takes the towel out of the water, and uses it to scrub his weariness, sweat and shock from his face. And he cleans the towel again, and uses it to tidy his hair, and slicks it back to its former position. It is a futile attempt seeing as he uses gel to keep it in place, but it is better than it was before, at least it is not flopped down on his forehead like he used to in the academy.

Hux turns off the tap, and takes another dry towel from the hangar, and dries his face with it. When he is finally convinced that he is presentable enough and that there is nothing he can do about his hair, he leaves the refresher without taking a second glance at himself. Hux walks out and looks at the droid who is carefully implanting the robotic arm on Ren, and without saying another word and not looking back at the droid-Hux walks out of the med bay, and heads to the bridge.

 

* * *

 

 

General Hux is a terrifying man, everyone in the bridge knows this-but none know that more than Captain Peavey. And that is because the captain has served the First Oder for much longer than most officers present on the bridge; he has even been around since the funding of the Order itself. And given this, he can boast that he has serve under some of the most powerful officers the Order has ever had. But from all of the surnames, of people he has ever served before-only one has always stood above all ells, and that surname is Hux.

In his time in the Order, he has had the honour and the unfortunate opportunity to serve under the name of Hux since funding of the order. It was an honour to serve under Hux senior, who was a brilliant strategist, and a strong-willed man. But it was unfortunate that he had to be stuck with his bastard of a son, only a few years after Brendol Hux had died.

Upon meeting him, he knew that the boy was nothing like his father, he had morals far more than his father ever did, and had an arrogance that came with the famous surname. Till this day he still sees the great difference between Brendol and his son.

But sometimes rarely- but it does happen. The young General resembles his father so much that for a moment he would think that he was looking at the ghost of Hux senior, instead of his son. -This time is one of those times.

“Come again Captain?” asks Hux patiently, and stoically.  Everything in the bridge seemed to have stopped moving, or show any signs of living, upon hearing the words. Peavey and everyone in the bridge stopped dead in their tracks, and they all froze and stopped breathing at the calm voice of the General frightening them to the core. They all knew that the General’s calmness and unimpressed tone was just the calm before the horrifying storm that was to come. And nobody wanted to say or even move-they didn’t want to set the General off.

Hux had only come inside the bridge few minutes ago, he was still limping slightly from his knee, and everyone in the bridge had stopped their work and froze to look at him.

Felling their stares on him he had turned his head to look around, and quickly noticed the shocked and worried expression of his officers. And if he looked hard enough he could also see a hint of fear in some of their eyes. Upon seeing their expression, he felt a trickle of dread in him-something must have happened, and he hopes that it isn’t what he thinks it is. Hux inpatient and slightly worried, makes his way to the front of the bridge to where he usually stations himself and where Peavey was currently standing.

When Peavey had seen him come in, he had stud frigid on his spot and looked at Hux horrified. Hux did not comment on the Captain’s behaviour, and simply stud beside him not looking at him, but ahead of him and into the darkness of space. If Peavey was going to tell him what he thought he was going to tell him, then he rather not lose his temper before he allows the Captain explain himself- and looking at him would only make that harder.

“I hope you have good news Captain, it has been a long and frustrating day, and I am in much need for good news” says Hux, patiently. He feels Peavey shift around his spot, writhing around in discomfort.

The captain was taking his time in answering him, and he was soon losing his tolerance. Hux was about to call up the mission logs, since the captain wouldn’t speak, But Peavey quickly cleared his throat and began to speak.

“General Hux, I have done what you order-and I went after the Resistance in the planet Crait” says Peavey, his voice brimming with fear and hesitance. Hux put his hands behind his back, and grips his hands tightly, he was losing patience with the man “I told you to tell me the end results of your mission, not to tell me what I already know captain!” he hisses, out in anger.

He heard a few people shift around their seats and coughs-all trying to escape the uncomfortable situation. Peavey shifts around his feet gain before answering Hux “Sir…I took my division, and as many men as I could-but we were stopped by the walls of their base. We could not penetrate it with our AT-AT’s or our TIE-fighter.” Peavey stops talking, taking a deep breath getting ready for what was to come before continuing.

“After a while we were able to make a dent on the wall. But when we managed to get a few Stormtroopers inside the base, they found it empty. I searched the area personally with my division, to look for anything that might lead us to them but we found nothing. It seems like the Resistance has banished, without leaving a trace.” He says, rushing the last few words wanting to let everything out quickly.

Most of the crew on the bridge stopped working once again, and focused on the General instead. They all knew that the usually composed man could not keep his control over such news. They all waited for him to snap, but all they saw is Hux’s grip on his hands tighten exponentially.

Hux took a deep breath, attempting to centre himself and not lose control. He was already restraining himself from graving his blaster, and shooting the worthless man beside him, by griping his hands together. After a long while of silence, and Peavey squirming on the spot Hux finally asked him to repeat himself, as calmly as he could muster.

He heard everyone behind them hold their breath, and the dead silence that shrouded the bridge. His calmness and acceptance in his tone, was far from how he felt. He felt great hatred, irritation, and anger over come him, and it was so great that would it not be for his control he would have already lashed out at the Captain.

“Well sir…the Resistance got away, and we have-nothing to lead us to them” says the Captain, scared of the General. If Hux had not lashed out at him before, he certainly would do it now and he knew that.

Hux simply nods his head in understanding “I fear that carrying out this conversation here would be an ill decision. Captain accompany me to my office” says Hux just as stoically, restraining each and every emotion from overcoming him.

The Captain for on the hundredth time since Hux entered the bridge squirm, in discomfort, but he does not walk to Hux’s office-staying rooted to his spot instead “Sir, I ask that-“ before he could finish his sentence, Hux turns around to face him so quickly, that Peavey takes a step back startled.

Hux looks at the man with fire in his eyes, so much so that Peavey turns his gaze away from the man’s eyes. “Captain Peavey! My office NOW!” he shouts the last word with great anger, his voice ringing around the silent bridge. Everyone in the bridge took a startled breath, they had heard the General yell before certainty, but that was usually over the heat of the moment when they were fighting the rebels. They don’t ever recall Hux yelling at any of them because of a failed mission, nor have they ever seen him this angry, and they rather never see or hear that again

Hux does not say anything more, nor does he look at the other officers who are staring at him. He simply walks away from Peavey, and into his personal office-which is also inside the bridge.

He needs privacy to speak with the Captain, and the office is the perfect place for that, the room is sound proof after all. He doesn’t know if he finds this opportune because no one will hear him yell at the Captain, or because he was going to kill the man. At this point he does not know.

The office itself is a simple room, not nearly as lavish as most general offices-but then again this is just one of his offices, and certainly not his main one. Hux walks to the desk, filled with countless unread data pads that no doubt started to pile after he had left for the _Supremacy._ He barely looks at them as he makes his way to his desk, and takes his seat behind the desk, and waits for Peavey to close the door of the office, and take his seat in front of him.

Hux has done this countless times in the past. Reprimanding another fellow officer is just another duty of every high ranking officer, but it had been a while since he had done this himself. Being a General-and the most powerful one in the Order at that-he no longer had to oversee such trifle duties, and he simply gave them to other officers to do for him. It is not out of laziness of course, he has always been thorough in his work. But as his influence and powers grew in the Order, the more duties he had, and this meant that he had to give some of his own duties to others, it was the only way he could manage everything.

But then there are moments like these ones, where-due to the nature, the importance, and the gravity of the offence- that he had no other choice but to oversee it himself. It had been such a long time, since he had to seat in front of another officer to reprimand them. He maybe a little bit out of practice, but like anything he will not fail.

 Hux looks at Peavey dead in the eyes, and the captain manages to hold his angry gaze for a long while, but eventually like everyone ells that had seen him angry before, he turns away. “It is quite a situation you got yourself in Captain. I entrusted-the single most important mission the Order has ever had, to you” he says with regaining his calm and stoic tone back, and this only made Peavey squirm even more.

“I suppose it is half my fault, I never should have trusted you with this-with such an important task” he says his voice turning more deadly as he spoke.

“But it was such a simple mission Captain. It truly does baffle me how you managed, to fail such a simple mission.” He says leaning on his desk slightly. The captain did not say anything, as Hux spoke and Peavey barely even looked at him, and this only angered Hux more. The man squirming like a child, and avoiding his mistake-it made him sick.

“You only had to kill a few Rebels that were simply hiding from us- and not to mention without any ships, to escape. You had our entire armada at your disposal, and yet you were stopped by a mere WALL!” he yells unable to keep his calm, demeanour or tone.

He was practically shaking from anger, and he not stop himself any longer. He knows that his fury was not directed just at what happened with the Resistance, but at everything that has happened since the _Supremacy_ was destroyed. The escape of the Resistance, is just the spark that was needed to set his fury aflame

And who best to set his fury on, but on the man he hated since he was a child. “As soon as you noticed, that the wall could not be destroyed with the weapons you had at hand-you should have sought a more powerful one to do the job!”  He says his voice now dripping with anger.

“You could have called for more TIE-fighters, or you could have called for the cruisers to fire down on the base. Or better yet- you could have ordered our new cannon to be brought down, and BLAST the door to pieces! He watches Peavey as his eyes widen-he had forgotten about the cannon. And in that moment he truly wanted to shot the useless and incompetent man, and rid the order from his foolishness. 

Unless he wanted  to spend the rest of the day, hiding Peavey’s body-he needed to remain calm, people usually made hasty and bad decision in anger. Also, he has learned in his time in the Order that men tend to fear composure far more than visual anger. 

Hux lets out a long breath composing himself. “Peavey you truly do disappoint me. My father had always held you in high regards, and saw you as a close friend of his. I cannot believe that it is you-who caused such a blunder in- in fact I am sure a cadet would have done better than you” he says regaining his calmness, bit by bit.

Hux watched as Peavey’s expression turned from one of fear, to one of anger. Hux’s words obviously hit a nerve in him, and it was taking all of the Captain’s self-control to remain quiet. And yet despite his anger, he still could not look at the younger man in the face.

“But what is done is done; there is no need in dwelling on the past. So this only leaves me with carrying out with the promise- I gave you on the hangar. I shall have to give you a punishment fit for this blunder” he says, grabbing his own personal data pad from the desk. Hux does his best to act indifferent to the whole situation, as if the Captain’s career was not in his hands.

Hux knew his indifference would only anger the Captain; in fact he wanted the man to get angry and lash out at him, so that he can give him an even worse punishment. But the man did not say anything, but he did bite his lips to stop himself.

“Let’s see, Edrison Peavey-here you are” says Hux scrolling though the data pad, looking for the captain’s profile.

Peavey watched Hux, as he look through his profile and press a few buttons. He could not make out what he was doing, from where he was. And this just angered him more; the damn man was acting as if he was looking at the daily log.

Finally after a while of waiting, and watching Hux, the man wrote a few things on his data pad. He read over what he wrote, and pressed a button, and put the data pad down on the desk. It is only after the data pad was carefully laid on his desk that Hux looks up at Peavey dead in the eyes, but the Captain looks anywhere but the General’s eyes.

 And so without further wait, or care Hux announces the Captain’s punishment.

“Captain, Edrison Peavey for your incompetence, and the dreadful way you handle such an important mission. I hereby strip you of your ranks, and order you to remain in your chamber-and await further order. You are no longer part of the First Order, and I therefor leave your fate in the hands of our Supreme leader” he says stoically, and calmly.

Peavey’s eyes widen and his eyes snap to Hux’s, finally meeting his gaze. Peavey’s eyes were filled with fury, and contempt. Any other officer would be scared at the man’s gaze or even sorry. But Hux wanted to smile at the man’s obvious anger instead.

“You might as well order my execution!” yells the Captain, knowing that he has nothing left to lose. Hux raises an eyebrow amused, and simply moves his gaze away from the man and looks at his data pad once more, taking it back from the desk.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you did not betray the order or do anything to justify your execution” he says offhandedly, as if he was making a casual point to a friend. This only anger’s Peavey who growls in frustration, and anger.

“You know very well, that Kylo Ren will not hesitate to kill me!” he shouts angrily. Hux knows that he is tying to anger him and give him a reason to order his execution. Not wanting to have to deal with the angry man, Hux calls for a group of Stormtroopers to escort the Captain to his chambers.

He really does not want to be in the presence of the worthless man. Thankfully though, the Stormtroopers come in less than a minute, sparing him from further suffering. Hux’s door to his office is knocked by the waiting Stormtroopers. Hux presses a button on his desk, and the door opens revealing the escort to the angry man, who turns and his eyes widen at seeing the three white armoured man.

At seeing the Stormtroopers, Peavey began to see the reality of the situation. This was actually happening; he is being kicked out of the Order. He had thought that Hux was bluffing, that he was simply trying to scare him, but it seems that he was completely serious.

The Stormtroopers stud by the door awaiting his order, not even looking at Peavey. “I need two of you, to escort Edrison Peavey to his chambers. You are allowed to use force, if he refuses to go willingly” he commands barely looking away from his data pad, to give out his order.

Hux does not look up, but he feels Peavey shoot to his feet and turn to face him. And Hux could practically feel the holes the man is burning into his skull with his stare.

“You are a coward Armitage, letting the savage dog to do all the dirty work for you. But then again you never did like getting your hand dirty! I bet you didn’t even soil your own hands when you killed your father!” he shouts, and thankfully others in the bridge do not hear him because the door is closed.

Hux freezes on the spot, it had been ages since he had heard his first name. But that is not the reason he froze- the man had just accused him for his father’s death.

He does not feel anger or guilt that the man had blamed for the death of his father. Of course Hux knew that he did order his father to be murdered, and he knows that Peavey always suspected. The Captain never had any evidence of course, and he never brought it up, but now he has nothing to lose, and he wanted to say that in front of someone before he left.

Not wanting Peavey and the other troopers to see his hesitance, Hux simply waves his hand, as if his words meant nothing to him.

The Stormtroopers getting the memo approach the Captain and force him to turn away from Hux and walk towards the door. The captain does not say anything ells, as he leaves the chamber.

When Hux hears the door closing he finally turns away from his data pad, and looks at the remaining Stormtrooper-who is dutifully awaiting commands. The extra Stormtrooper was not a miscalculation of his, he deliberately order the extra Stormtrooper, so that he could ask him a question.

“PH-3590, please step forward” says Hux, with a hint of exhaustion. The Stormtrooper does not say a word, and barely even makes a sound as he approached Hux’s desk and stand in front of him.

“Since I boarded the _Finalizer,_ it has become obvious to notice the absence of Captain Phasma. I suspect that something must have happened to her, but I rather hear it from one of her men.” He said getting to the point quickly.

The Stormtrooper does not flinch or hesitate, like his officers would at having his complete attention on them. He was impressed, this was a well-trained trooper. But then again this one is one of Phasma’s personally trained Stormtrooper-and he would not expect any less from that.

The Stormtrooper straightens his back, and keeps his gaze fixed in front of Hux never meeting his face. “General Hux, it is my unfortunate duty to inform you that captain Phasma perished on the _Supremacy._ A couple of my men, including myself saw the whole thing- and it is great anger that I must inform you that it was the traitor FN-2187 who killed the captain” says the Stormtrooper, without hesitation but with a hint of anger.

Hux looks at the Stormtrooper in shock. He barely registered the last few words.

‘ _captain Phasma is dead?_ ’ He thinks, that it is some sick joke that the Trooper is pulling-the captain is much too tough to simply die at the hand of a traitors Stormtrooper.

Seeing that Hux needed time alone, the Trooper salutes him respectfully and leaves the office.

Hux looks at the door, which the trooper just exited from- in shock. He slumps back on his seat practically defeated. How could Phasma die? She always seems like such a strong person, stronger than him in many things in fact.

He has come to respect the Captain, more than he had ever respected anyone in a very long time. Through his respect she had become like a friend to him, they had spent long periods of time together thinking of new ways to improve the Stormtrooper program. And they had spent most of their working time together, strategizing, and sharing ideas about the Order- and how it can be improved. They had even shared some of their free time, simply conversing with one another. Hux rarely spent any of his free time with his fellow officers, he spent most of his waking time with them after all, and he rather not spent his personal time with them. But Phasma had been different, they both shared a common interest and goal, and she had a way of thinking that much resembled his.

She was the one person in the whole Order-he considered to be his friend, and now she is dead. She has been bested by the treacherous rebel, who barely even passed the Stormtrooper academy tests. It is almost comical or poetic, that the great Captain one of the Order’s most fearsome warriors- was bested by her biggest mistake and flaw in the system.

Thinking of the traitor makes him feel great loathing. He hated the man, he was a smudge in his personal record, and now he has killed someone important to him. He was determined now more than ever to kill the man, and now it would be for personal reasons.

Hux’s hands tremble atop of the desk. He had to channel all this anger or he would end up breaking something like Ren, or do something he would regret later. And he knows just the thing to calm him, if only slightly.

Hux reaches into his pocket with a nervous twitch, desperately searching for his box of cigarettes. For a moment he is worried, that he had dropped them when he fell of the _Supremacy._ But he does eventually find them buried deep inside his great coat’s pocket.

He never smokes outside his chambers, or other private areas. It was hard at times to fight the addiction, but just the thought that he would be breaking protocol stops him every time.

But today is different, given to everything that has happened, he does not care one bit about protocol, he needs a smoke right now or he is going to break apart.

He snaps the elegant metal box open with little finesse, and takes out a cigarette with his own teeth’s, and throws the box to the desk where it makes a clattering sound atop of other data pads. He reaches for his other pocket, and takes out a classic black lighter that is lightly dented, and roughed from overuse. Most officers have an electrical modern lighter, it is much more reliable, and more durable- not to mention that it doesn’t have to be refilled. But Hux has always had a fascination with classical and old things; they have an elegance that modern things simply do don’t have.

Hux flips the lid of the lighter open, and flicks the flint wheel. It takes him a couple of flicks to get the lighter going, due to his desperation-but eventually the wick bursts into flames. And Hux quickly takes the flame to the cigarette on his lips, and lights it.

He closes the lid on the lighter, extinguishing the flames, and put’s it down on the desk, with more care than he did the cigarette box. He takes one desperate big puff from the cigarette, holding the smoke inside his lungs for a little while. He eventually takes the cigarette out of his mouth and exhales the smoke-finally sated. He feels the nicotine working inside his system, giving him a rush of its relaxing attributes.

Hux slumps back on his chair, and relaxes looking up at the ceiling. He does not want to think about anything, not about Kylo Ren being supreme leader, the Jedi being aboard the _Finalizer,_ and being treated like a guest rather than the enemy she is. He definitely does not want to think about the Resistance running away-once again. Nor does he want to think about Phasma’s death. He just wants to finish his cigarette in peace.

And he does just that, he keeps staring at the celling not think about anything and smoking his cigarette. But just when he was truly beginning to relax a loud beeping sound emanates from his data pad.

Hux practically jumps from his seat, startled by the sound. He takes the cigarette out of his moth, but he doesn’t look at the data pad. He doesn’t want to look at the damn thing; he wants to have a moment of peace in all the chaos. But being who he is, Hux takes a deep inhale of the cigarette that is not even halfway through, and graves the data pad.

Hux’s eyebrows furrow in anger, and he practically throws the thing against the wall, when he read the message. Couldn’t he get a moment of peace? Was that too much to ask for?

On the data pad there was a message, from one of the Stormtrooper that read-‘ _Supreme leader Ren, has awoken. He is destroying the med bay- he is disoriented, and in shock. He is still in the med bay, but could become a danger to others if he exists the room in this state of mind’_ Hux practically stumps his feet like a child, after reading it again.

Hux put out his cigarette angrily, and throws it out. Before leaving his office he takes his cigarette box, and lighter from the desk, and puts them both inside separate pockets. Only then does he walk out of the office angrily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well finally you get to see some form of action, and you got to see a ticked off Hux (poor Peavey). I mean you had to see it coming, the first and the second chapter have been leading up to this. I wanted him to lose his temper on Kylo, but then I thought it wouldn’t be realistic because Kylo would probably kill him.   
> And Hux finally learned what happened to Phasma, and her death will become more important as the story progresses. And you got to see the fate of the Resistance, I mean of course I wasn’t going to kill them off how boring would that be?  
> (Spoilers well kind of) next chapter will not focus on Hux; I will not tell you who it will focus on. But I will tell you that it may be a while before we go back to Hux, this story is driven by three different characters after all, and we can’t spend the whole story on Hux.   
> So enjoy, and review, and I will see you again next Tuesday.


	4. Wounds of the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long chapter and this one is kind of an interesting one and different from any chapter so far. So I hope you enjoy it.

Light enters through the windows of the apartment, bathing the inside with natural light. The warm light lighting the apartment, gives it a serene and peaceful atmosphere making it the perfect place to lie down and relax. Of course the peace and tranquility did not last very long.

A young boy, with long dark hair and richly adorned clothes- comes running into the apartment with a toy X-Wing in hand, held high above his head.

The silence of the apartment is broken by the sounds of running footsteps, and the sound of whooshing coming from the boy, who was mimicking the sound of the ship. The boy runs around the living room area, moving the toy around- pretending that it was flying into combat in deep space.

The boy laughs cheerfully, without a care in the world as he jumps on top of a couch, mimicking the sound of blasters as he makes the ship dive. But just as he was bringing the toy up from its dive, he lost his grip on it, and the toy falls from his hand.

Hi small eyes widen in terror when the toy has left his hand. This was no mere child's toy it was a miniature replica of an X-Wing, and it is quite expensive- not to mention fragile. The boy hastily, before the toy hits the ground stretches his hand out to grave it mid-air, but his arms are too short.

He closes his eyes not wanting to see his favourite toy break, and awaits the inevitable sound. But the sound never comes.

Confused, he slowly opens his eyes, and looks at his outstretched hand and at the spot where the toy was supposed to be on the floor.

But the ship was not on the floor it was mid-air, just above the floor floating like a real X-Wing. The boy looks at the ship slightly startled, but then grins and moves his towards his face moving the ship with it until it was just in front of his face. He inspects the floating ship, making sure that nothing was broken.

When he was certain that the ship was fine, he grinned and continued playing but instead of using his hand he used the force to make the ship levitate, making it look like it was really flying through space.

The young child laughed joyfully, as he played with more vigour causing a few things to fall, but he did not noticed the mess he was creating.

The boy was a top a counter, and he waited there for a little while with the toy floating by his outstretched hand. He eyed the destination he was planning to jump to, calculating how far he had to leap. It was a long distance, and if he missed the couch he could hurt himself- probably even break something. But he was not quitter, he would jump and make it to the sofa he knew it. So without thinking it any further, he leaps and manages to land on the couch safely.

The young boy laughed cheerfully, and triumphantly. And he was about to climb atop the counter to jump again, but he was stopped by the sound of a door opening and footsteps coming in to the living room.

He stops dead in his track, and instead of going to the counter, he stands by the sofa instead. All signs of fun and cheerfulness was wiped from his face, as he looked at the man that had just entered the apartment, with both arms behind his back and the ship levitating by his shoulder.

The man also stops dead on his track, and looks at the boy. He looks at him, inspecting him slightly sceptical at the boy's innocent looking face.

And then moves his eyes to look at the living room that looked like a storm had passed. There were pillows on the ground, even a broken base, but what was worse were the grey boot prints that were scattered around the whole room.

The man's eyes widen in horror at the mess the boy had made, he turns his eyes back on the child, and narrows his eyes in anger. He takes a deep breath, and huffs, in annoyance. The boy flinches lightly, knowing that he was in trouble but not wanting to say anything.

"Ben, what have I told you about playing in the living room?" asks Han, angrily.

Ben looks at his father's angry eyes for a few seconds, and then turns them away guiltily. Ben looks down at his foot, and moves it around trying to avoid his father's gaze.

"I was playing and I got carried away-sorry" he says softly, not wanting to receive his father's wrath.

Han huffs again, and moves towards the couches, and fixes the pillows. "You know that you are not supposed to be playing here, and you know that we have guests coming today."

Ben shuffles his feet around some more, and turns his head to look at his dad who is turned away from him and repositioning a table. "Sorry" he says again, not having any excuse to give him.

Han straightens his back, sighs, and turns to face his son once more. "I know you get bored Ben, you have been cooped up here ever since you got kicked out of the tech lessons. But you still gotta follow instructions kiddo, there are rules for a reason, and your mother is going to-"

He stops himself before he finished the sentence. His gaze flash to the ship hovering above Ben's shoulder, and his eye turn serious and angry once more. He had not notices the ship before- too busy with lecturing Ben and Ben didn't even notice that the ship was still levitating.

Ben looked at his father confused, as to what he was looking at. But when his eyes turned to look at the spot he was looking at he realizes that Han was looking at the ship. His eyes widen in terror and he graves the toy right out of the air, and grips it firmly in his hand, as if trying to hide the toy away from Han.

"What have we said about using the force Ben?" asks Han getting angry once more.

Ben looks away from his dad, and squirms on the spot "not to use it…but I can't always help it" he says adding the last words, trying to appease his father. Han sighs, and put both hand on his hips.

"I want you to go to your room, you are grounded until I say so" says Han coldly, and Ben flinches at his coldness but doesn't say anything.

Ben turns away, looking down at the floor and walks away not wanting to say a word.

The scene around, Ben is then shrouded by darkness erasing everything.

Everything remains pitch black for quite a while, until a small bright light finally emerges from the darkness. The light becomes bigger, and bigger soon encompassing everything.

Eventually another scene emerges from the light.

It is the same apartment, but this time it's night time, and some of the decoration was changed meaning that time had passed. The living room is far from peaceful, unlike lasts time. Angry voices fill the space, and sometimes even yelling can be heard.

The young boy-Ben solo-who is slightly taller than before- is standing by a door half hiding behind it, his head the only thing that can be seen. The young boy is shivering lightly from his silent sobs, and tears are slowly running down his cheeks.

"We can't keep going like this… things can't remain this way" says the voice of Han, coming from the living room. Ben can't see him but he knows that he is really angry.

"Then what do you suggest we me do. Tell me!" yells the angry voice of a Leia, who is just as angry as Han by the sound of her voice. A few moments pass before Han replies, but when he does his voice is cold. "I told you- we have to send him away it's the only way."

Ben takes a deep breath in shock; clearly he was affected by his father's answer. And when he hears Leia huff, he knows that she too isn't happy about it either

"That's your answer to everything- avoiding the problem. But I shouldn't be surprised, you always did run away when things got tough!" she barks out angrily.

"And you think you can fix everything, by yourself. Don't you see we can't help him anymore, we forbade him from using the force hoping that it would just go away like it does with you. But that has only proven to make things worse- he has too much Skywalker in him and he needs Luke's help"

From where Ben was he could tell that his father's voice was losing its anger, and was being replaced with resentment, and sadness. "Leia, I may not have the force, but even I can see that there is a darkness growing in him. When will you start to see it? If we do nothing about it, eventually it will consume him"

Neither of them say anything, both to upset to say anything ells.

Everything turns black again, and it remains this way for a lot longer than before. Noting could be seen in the dark abyss, but eventually something comes out of the darkness.

But this time it isn't another scene. Voices are what come out of the darkness, none of them making sense and too noisy to make out anything. The voices are loud and scattered around the black space. Eventually the voices disappeared, allowing two voices to rise above them.

"You promise you will visit me" asks the sad voice of Ben, from the darkness.

"Ben I told you already-of course we'll visit you. Not often, but you will see us again kiddo I promise" says the voice of Han Solo, reassuringly.

A while pass before someone talks again, but when Ben speaks again it is with great sadness and uncertainty "I don't want you to go" he pleads softly.

"Come now Ben, you know that you need to go. Besides it won't be so bad. You'll get to learn to use the force, and you'll even get to learn to be a Jedi like in the stories and like your uncle Luke!" says Han reassuringly, and playfully but also, with a hint of hesitance and sadness.

When Ben doesn't say anything, Han clears his throat and continues to speak "well I have to go, got a mission to get to, so I won't be there when Leia drops you off. But before I go I want you to know that I love you, and that I will miss you every day- things just won't be the same without you kiddo" says Han's voice sadly.

When Ben does speak it's so quietly and softly that it almost cannot be heard "I love you too dad- I- I'll miss you" he says sobbing slightly.

The two voices are drowned by the numerous other voices, making it noisy once more. But like before they eventually quiet, and they are replaced by the soft hum of machinery, and wind blowing.

Eventually a voice breaks the silence and it is that of Han Solo once more.

"The face of my son" he says determined.

A long while passes before another voice break the silence "your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him" says Kylo's voice.

"That's what Snoke wants you to believe, but it's not true- my son is alive" says Han with an even more determined voice.

After those words everything goes silent again, but the hum of machinery and wind eventually return and so do the voices.

"It's too late" says the voice of Kylo hesitating.

"No it's not come home… we miss you."

Everything goes silent once more, for a little while but the sound of the wind never leaves.

"I'm being torn apart. I want be free of this pain."

"And I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it- will you help me?" asks Kylo's voice filled with sadness.

"Yes…anything"

After those words, the darkness is shrouded with silence. Not even the sound of the wind can be heard in the darkness. But something does break the silence once more.

What ends the silence isn't a voice, but the sharp sound of a unstable lightsaber being turned on, and the sound of flesh being torn apart.

The darkness is filled with the sound of the crackling lightsaber. Until it goes away after someone finally speaks.

"Thank you" says the voice of Kylo Ren, with sadness and relief.

After those words, the voices returned stronger than before, making it impossible to her anything.

The voices unlike before- which sounded like they were having a conversation- now sounded like they were suffering. Screams, sobs, and terrified wails were the sounds the voices were now making.

Yet from the terrifying voices, a loud and deep rumble emanates around the room, and it sounded like it was coming from a man

The rumbling sound grew louder and louder. And it in time it turns angry, and fearsome overcoming all of the other voices.

The rumbling sound becomes so loud, that is everything that can be heard in the darkness making it deafeningly loud.

Eventually everything begins to crack from the loudness, and the darkens cracks in half.

* * *

Kylo's eyes snap open, waking from his sleep. The first thing his eyes see is a white ceiling, meaning that he was not in his chambers, his chamber's ceiling are dark grey.

His back shoots up from the bed, after noticing he was not in his room.

He did not know where he was or how he got there, his mind was muddle and he couldn't understand anything. He anxiously reaches for his lightsaber, wanting to have the familiar weapon in his hand. He knew that having the saber in his hand would calm him down, if only slightly.

Also, he had to be ready to defend himself in the unknown room. And his muddle conscience told him that enemies could be lurking about.

His hand reaches down on his belt, where his lightsaber is kept. But where his saber is usually clipped on- is empty. They had taken his lightsaber from him. Kylo's eyes widen, and he begins to get apprehensive.

Where was his lightsaber? Where is he? why couldn't he focus? And why was he so incomprehensive? He truthfully did not know, and he tried to make sense of things and find out where he was. But he couldn't see anything, everything was so fuzzy, and his mind couldn't focus no matter how hard he tried.

'Where am I?' he asks himself, worried, and slightly afraid. He had no lightsaber, and with the state of mind that he is in- he is sure he could not use the force to protect himself.

He takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He knows that getting riled up is not going to help him, at all.

So he closes his eyes and reaches out to the force, hoping to find answer through mediation. But after a while of attempting to connect with the force- his eye furrow in annoyance.

His connection to the force was just as muddle as his mind, and he couldn't focus on it. He tries harder, and attempts to focus but had no luck. Kylo grits his teeth in frustration, and he was about to give up on mediation. But he stops himself when he feels a soft, and peaceful presence in his mind.

It was small and fragile, and for a moment he was afraid to reach out to it- not wanting to break it. But despite his hesitation, he reaches out as gently as he could, pressing his mind to it.

Upon touching the strange presence he automatically begins to calm down. The presence was more gentle and tranquil than anything he had ever felt before, a polar difference to his unstable and harsh presence.

Kylo couldn't help cover his mind in the soft and tranquil presence. And the deeper he dwells on it the more his mind begins to focus, and the more he calms down mirroring the peacefulness.

But the peacefulness and gentleness is soon invaded by the feeling of fury, anger, and destruction.

Kylo's focus on the gentle presence snapped, he was being drawn to the chaotic presence instead. Kylo turns away from the soft and warm presence almost unwillingly but he does- needing to know what the other thing was.

He reaches out to the chaotic presence, and just like he did with the other softer one- he delves deep inside of it. The unstable and dangerous force coming from the presence forces him to completely focus, and his mind begins to revert back to its incomprehensive state.

Unlike the other presence Kylo knows what this is, it is obvious since he had spent a very long time in its presence.

It was his cross guard lightsaber and he completely focused on it, his state of mind mimicking that the state of the lightsaber- unstable. Soon his eyes shoot open, still unable to see anything but he doesn't need to, to know where his lightsaber is.

Kylo lifts his hand in the direction his lightsaber is located, which turned out to be a desk near his bed. The lightsaber lifts, and snaps to his hand and Kylo grips the lightsaber tightly almost as a lifeline.

With the lightsaber in his hand, he begins to calm down slightly. It is after all, the one thing that has never failed him. But just as he thought about faithful lightsaber, his mind began to turn to a darker path.

He remembered the dreams he just had, and his hands tighten exponentially on the handle of the lightsaber. It had been so long since he dreamed about his past, or about anything that had to do with Ben Solo.

And instead of saddening, or make him regretful by everything that once was- he is enraged at the pitiful dream. His mind was clearly weak if it went back to those times. Ben Solo is dead, and nothing can bring him back not even his own father could.

Kylo's hands shake in anger, and his brows contort in the anger he is very familiar with. It's the type of anger, he uses when he is faced with a challenge. The type of anger he used to strike down Han Solo- the pitiful rebel, and poor excuse for a father. Kylo grits his teeth, allowing himself to go down the path of anger, and darkness embracing it like an old acquaintance.

He despised dreaming about Ben Solo, the weak boy who loved, and cared for his parents. The boy who so desperately wanted to become a person his parents would accept, and cherish and who above all ells- wanted to be a normal boy. He had wanted to be a regular boy, without the powers of the force, and without distinguished parents.

Ben Solo would have given anything for that, and now that he thinks back on his younger self's desires he felt disgust. Yes he hated Ben Solo, more than anyone in the entire galaxy; he has become a burden in his new life and a weakness he couldn't shake. Not to mention that he couldn't fully destroy his younger self, the only way would be to erase his memory and that wasn't possible without unwanted side effects- he checked after all.

He angrily grips his lightsaber so tightly, that if he had not reinforced it with hard metal, then he is sure he would have broken it in half. He was overcome in anger and fury caused mainly by the dream, and his incoherent mind which was still trying to make sense of things. All of this made him feel weak, and that is something that he- Kylo Ren is not. It was Ben Solo who was weak; Kylo Ren is not Ben Solo.

Overcome in anger Kylo turned on the lightsaber, and brought it mere inches from his face. He gazed at the flaring blade, which was making its familiar crackling and unstable. He looked at the lightsaber for a long while, feeling the heat emanating from it. Being so bright- it was the only thing he could make out from his blurry vision, and he held on to that as if it were the only thing in the galaxy.

For a little moment he was beginning to calm down, focusing on the energy of the Kyber crystal. He knew that the chaotic presence he felt had come from the crystal itself. Having trained as a Jedi, and later on as a Knight of Ren- he knew that lightsaber had a conscience of their own. It was nowhere as intricate or complicated as a human's conscience but it was there, and only a highly powerful force user could truly feel it. And he knew that many non-force sensitive would be shocked to hear that an inanimate object had a conscience. They did have such feeble, and short minded minds after all, never considering the possibilities.

The soft sound of a door sliding open comes from his side, and Kylo turned his head to where the sound had come from. His focus on the lightsaber was shattered, leaving him with an empty feeling that was quickly being filled with hate, and anger.

His eyes narrowed when he saw the intruder that had come into the room. He couldn't really tell who it was, or what it was- all he could really make out was a black and silver blob approaching him.

He still couldn't see well, but at least he could see shapes and forms, and that is sufficient enough to protect himself. He didn't know what the thing was, but he wasn't going to wait around and let it gain an upper hand on him, as far as he knew the thing approaching was there to kill him.

Kylo shoots from the bed in lightning speed, and lunged to the intruder with his lightsaber raised high ready to strike the being down. As he neared the intruder, he vaguely heard it say something but he couldn't make out what it was nor did he recognised the voice.

Kylo not caring that he still could not make out what the intruder was, even though he was right in front of it. Raised his lightsaber higher, and brings it down upon the intruder with force and without mercy.

As his lightsaber pierces the being in half, he feels sparks fly from his lightsaber burning his skin lightly, but he does not flinch at the feel of the burning sparks on his skin. He does however, looked down at the intruder realizing that it had been a droid.

Kylo looked down at it displeased, he would rather it had been a human, rather than a droid. His anger was far too great to be sated by the destruction of a worthless droid; he needed more to quiet the darkness in him. Kylo stands there his grip on his lightsaber getting tighter and tighter by the second, his fury only increasing and he could not stop it. He has dwelled in the darkness ever since he became Kylo Ren, and went to the depths that even his own Knights would not dare delve on. He had poured his every being into it and yet, it still managed to scare him at times, especially when it became uncontrollable.

It was in times like these of weakness, and fear that he remembered something that Luke had once told him during one of his training sessions, that had gone weary. ' _Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny._ ' That was the warning the old man had given him, but what did he know? Luke had little to no darkness inside of him, how could he possibly understand.

Kylo grit his teeth in anger, his mind was clearly not stable if it had begun to reminiscence about the past. Kylo brought his lightsaber up again, and cut something in half with it. He still could not see properly and his mind was still too muddle to make out anything, but he didn't care all he wanted was to feel his lightsaber destroy everything in its path. And once he started he could not stop.

Kylo went on a rampage as he always did, destroying everything in his path, he couldn't make out what it was that he was destroying but he could hear the sounds it made as he cut them in half. The feeling of destruction was helping him ignore, the other weaker emotions inside of him.

But his anger was too great, and cutting things in half was soon not enough, the darkness in him was rising making him more, and more unstable. And yet among the rising darkness he could still feel a speck of light, which is filled him with regret, and sadness.

He was going mad- he wanted it all to stop, for everything to leave him alone. He didn't want to feel anything, not the regret of killing his father, or his anger towards his weakness. Kylo roared in anger, and objects around him began to shake from his loos of control. His mind was too incoherent, and too conflicted to realize that he was using the force to tear the room apart, making the room shake. Not knowing that the ceiling could probably collapse on him if he continued.

The room shook, imitating his anger. The metals that lined the walls began to cave in on themselves, as if it was paper. The foundations of the room groaned, and the lights flicker desperately trying to remain on. The room was very close to collapsing on itself, and Kylo was none the wiser.

But Thankfully before that could happen, the door to the room slid open only managing to slide hallway seeing as it was mostly destroyed just like everything in the room.

And just as the person entered the room- Kylo froze on his spot, feeling the presence of the intruder. He did not stop the shaking he was causing in the room, or all the destruction. He was completely focused on the presence, to really care.

This presence he noticed was different from the last one, and he automatically knew that this was a human being. Kylo hears something come from the human behind him, but he could not understand anything so he turns to face the person wanting to know who it was before he killed it.

Kylo turns around, and looks at the new intruder. The person was tall, not as tall as him but tall. And from his hazy mind, and vision he could make out that the person was wearing black and dark grey clothes, he could not make out any detail whatsoever not even that of its face. But the one thing that did stand out was the man's hair which was a rare shade of light red that appear almost blond.

The colour of the person's hair was the only thing that kept him from killing it, he didn't know why but his mind kept telling him that he knew the person. But his hesitance did not mean that he was going to put his guard down, or that he wasn't going to kill him if he proved to be a threat.

Kylo kept looking at the man squinting trying to make out who it was, but he could not and it frustrated him. He also heard the person speak getting louder and louder, but he still could not comprehend. He did manage to realize that the person was male, due to its deep voice.

Eventually the situation was beginning to frustrate him, and bore him, and the man seems to be losing its patience too. Kylo was about to force push him out of the room, so that he could be alone with his rage once more.

But just as he was about to do that, the man takes several steps closer and Kylo tenses. He still did not know if the man was a threat or not, and didn't trust him. So when the man was close enough Kylo brings up his lightsaber and points it at the man, stopping him on his track.

Kylo pressed the tip of his lightsaber until it was mere inches from the man's neck, and he wanted nothing more than to drive it through his flesh to end him. But when he was about to do just that, he hears the man frantically shout at him.

And he strains to comprehend what he was saying, his conscious telling him that what the man had to say was important. He curses his ears for not being able to pick up anything, and he forces himself harder to comprehend. Eventually, his ears pop and he begins to hear again. He thought it would be a good thing to hear again, but instead of a happy sound- Kylo groans, at the loud noises coming from all around him. He felt like he could hear everything, and it was almost painful.

He puts his free hand to his ear trying to muffle the sound with it. But when his hand touched his skin, instead of feeling the usually soft skin of his hand he feels something cold and metallic instead.

Just as he was about to look down at his hand, he hears the man shout again in a much clearer voice, but he wasn't paying attention to him so he didn't quite catch what he said. Kylo narrowed his eyes, wanting to get rid of the nuisance, but the voice shouted again and this time he understood what he said.

"Snap out of it, or you are going to hurt the girl!" shouted the voice slightly desperate.

What girl? What was the voice talking about? Kylo thinking that the voice was trying to trick him, to make him bring down his guard- was about to slit the man's throat. But then just as he was about to do just that, a small part in his mind, a small remnant of Ben Solo in him began to scream at him to stop. Kylo tried to shake off the hesitation, until he felt the soft and soothing presence again. The one that was gentler than anything her ever felt before, and vibrated like a sun with power.

"Rey" he breathes out, realizing that the girl the man was speaking of was Rey.

Kylo's eyes widened and he stepped back from the man, letting go on the grip he had on the force. He did not realize that he was still making the room shake, and cave in with the force and that debris was now falling from the ceiling.

And just as he let go of his hold of the force- the room automatically stopped shaking, and sparks began to fall from several destroyed wires that were hanging from the ceiling. But Kylo did not care or even notice the state that the room was in.

His mind and vision were beginning to clear, at the mention of Rey. As his mind clears, he quickly searches for Rey's presence, digging deeper into their bond, so that he can find out if he hurt her or not.

It does not take him long to find her subconscious, and it does not take him as long as it should- meaning that their bond was growing. Kylo searches her mind, but does not look through her memories- he only wants to see if she is hurt nothing more.

Kylo sighs relieved that she was not hurt by his rage, and loss of self-control. And at his relief his rage and self-loathing went as fast as it came, and he his mind finally cleared and his vision became as sharp as ever. Unfortunately, as his mind cleared and his vision returned so did the pain and exhaustion that he was emanating from his very being. Ren groans, feeling like his body was on fire, and like it had been beaten to a pulp.

Only twice in his entire life had he felt like this. The first time had been when he turned against the Jedi, and had to fight his way through crowds of apprentices alongside his knights. The second time had been on  _Starkiller_  base, where he had been shot by the damn wookie and had to fight Rey.

Now he could add this new event to his painful experience, a list that he hopes does not get any bigger. Not that he is afraid of pain, but he much rather avoid it- he much rather deliver pain than feel it himself after all.

Speaking of pain, Kylo tries to flex his left arm but finds that he cannot. Instead, he feel the wires and metal bearings, and plates that are now his arm attempt to perform the action that Kylo was telling it to do.

Kylo looks down at his new arm, and sees that the robotic arm was completely bare and void of synthetic skin. Instead of skin, he has a smooth black metal plate covering parts of the arm- leaving some parts uncovered. He turns his arm examining it from all angles, the wiring and other mechanics that cause the arm to move were a deep shade of red much like the colour of the Order. And if he looked hard enough, he could see an engraved symbol of the Order on the metal plate. It was not big enough to be easily noticeable, but it was there and he knew from that detail, that the robotic arm was meant for a high ranking officer in the event that they lose their arm.

It was obvious by the military, and yet elegant design that, that was its purpose. It was not really meant for a knight who required, a much tougher arm for their fighting, nor was it merely elegant enough for a Supreme leader. And yet Kylo found himself liking the design, maybe when he gets a much better arm he will asks them to keep the design.

Kylo moved his robotic arm, trying to get used to the strange sensation that the robotic arm was giving him. He could feel the entire arm, his nerves were working perfectly and they had integrated it into his skin and remaining bone quite nicely. But it still felt odd, almost as if he was wearing a really heavy metal glove on his hand.

Just as Kylo was about to move his arm around, to see what its limits- he heard someone clear their throats impatiently.

Kylo had completely forgotten about the other man in the room, and is a little startled. He turns his head to look at the man, who he now realizes was Hux.

He is not shocked; to find out that it had been the General he had nearly killed. He knew that Hux would be the only one with enough courage, and low levels of self-preservation, to go inside a room with a raging and unstable knight of Ren.

Kylo looks at the annoyed general from head to toe examining him. His clothes were slightly rumpled, and drops of dried blood stain various areas of his great coat. His hair was still pulled back in its usual position, but it is far from its usual tidy state. The General's eyes looked extremely tiered, and the dark shadows under his eyes made his eyes pop out.

Overall the General looked horrible, and in a state he had never seen him in. Even after  _Starkiller's_ destruction, the General had not been this way. He had always been well put together, even in the harshest of conditions.

"It seems that you are finally on the right state of mind. I had come as soon as they told me that you had woken up. How are you doing- sir?"

Kylo looks at the man amused, and almost smiles at his words. Obviously by the strain and spite that he wanted to hide- the man was still angry at him for taking the role of Supreme leader. Kylo wanted to mock him, and throw the fact that he was the Supreme leader at his face, like a child. But then he remembered about the Resistance, and how he was unable to oversee their annihilation.

"I'm fine. Don't concern yourself on me- what I truly want is for you to tell me what happened to the Resistance" He said, his voice sounding rough.

At his command, Kylo watched as Hux visibly tensed, and Kylo knew that, that was not a good sign. By the General's change in demeanour he expected him to hesitate, and he thought that he had to force the information out of him. But as always the General did not falter, or hesitate to tell him what had happened.

"Since you are now Supreme leader, it is my duty to ensure your safety and health. But if you say that you are fine, then I will not question you. However, I will say that hearing what I am about to tell you would not be good for you, especially in your weakened state" He said looking at him directly in the eyes.

When Kylo does not say anything, Hux continues to speak. "Sir due to the delicate state you were in- I had to personally accompany you here. I was unable to personally oversee the destruction of the Resistance, and I sent Captain Edrison Peavey to go in my stead. It was a simple, yet important mission, and I did not think he would fail-but he was unable to destroy the base. And because of this the remaining rebels managed to get away." He said without hesitating, for even one second.

Kylo froze at the news the General just gave him, he truly could not believe his ears. The Resistance managed to get away- once more. He was angry that the Resistance was still alive, but he was also relieved, not relieved that they were alive. But relieve that he could be there when they are utterly destroyed.

At least this way he could see to its annihilation personally. He didn't want to give Hux, or anyone ells the satisfaction of destroying them- he wanted to do the honours himself.

"Do you have any leads as to where the Resistance, maybe hiding?"

Kylo said the words calmly, and he could see that Hux was confused at his lack of anger. But the General's confusion was substituted with concern. He was clearly trying to understand, and find out why he was not behaving as he had expected.

"Our troops could not find anything that would lead us to the whereabouts of the Resistance. It seems that we will have to start from scratch again" he said as if he was egging him to react, at the news.

But Kylo just nods his head instead, and the confusion on the General's face is almost comical. Yes Kylo was slightly angry at the situation, but he was not against sniffing out the Resistance once more- in fact he had come to enjoy it. At least with the Resistance around, he had an enemy to focus on and destroy.

"That is unfortunate, but we gain nothing from standing around talking about it. Have you done anything, to look for them?" he asks. And Hux wiped his confusion from his face, and straightens his back.

"On my way here I ordered a few TIE-Fighters to go out and search for them. And after I leave here, I will come up with a plan to find them" He said with his usual air of command, and Kylo nods his approval.

"Then that will be your duties for now on General. I want you to find the Resistance, and once your found them I want you to inform me. You can use any method you wish, as long as they are found I do not care what you do" He says commandingly, but he does not sound as certain in barking out commands as Hux, or as frightening as Snoke had been. He will have to work on that, he refuses to be less than Hux in anything.

Hux bows his head slightly, as if dismissing himself and turns around to walk out of the destroyed room. But just before he leaves Kylo stops him.

"And General- I do not want you to fail me on this. Snoke may have given you leeway in the past, but I am not Snoke. If you fail I will kill you myself" he says deathly serious. But despites Kylo's threat, Hux does not show any sign of discomfort or fear.

"Also, I want you to prepare a cell for the Jedi. I want it to be big enough to move around, and I want it to have a bed for her. Also, I want it to be guarded by droids not Stormtroopers"

At this command, Hux does tense. It seems that the General despised, treating an enemy properly, more than being threatened with his life. It was interesting.

The General simply nods, and walks to the door, but just as he was about to exit the room he turns his head slightly towards Kylo.

"I think you will enjoy to know that Captain Edrison Peavey has been stripped of rank, and is currently locked inside his chambers. Since he is no longer part of the military force, it is up to you to decide what will become of him"

And with that, Hux turns his head and walks away from the chaotic room. And just as Kylo heard the news, his lips twitch and his eyes shine with excitement. He knew exactly what to do with the Captain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really long, and it was actually supposed to be longer. But I cut out a bunch of things that I thought would be better off in later chapters. This was kind of a sad chapter, and I really wanted to bring up Kylo's relationship with Han, and how he still regrets killing him. And I thought it would be perfect to do so now, since he isn't in the right state of mind.
> 
> And Rey is still sleeping beauty- sleeping her way through all of these chapters. But don't worry she will be taking centre stage very soon; the story does sort of revolve around her in a way.
> 
> see you next week


	5. Imprisonment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me a long while to write, and I’m sorry that I didn’t upload this chapter on Tuesday. But this chapter was just so difficult to write, and I’m still not happy about it ughhhhhh. 
> 
> So anyways please read and enjoy

“Join me” said the vision of Ben in her mind for the hundredth time. Ever since she fell unconscious she had been seeing the same vision over, and over again, as it kept repeating itself.

 Rey automatically knew that she was dreaming; that or she was stuck in a strange force vision of some sort. She knew this because she had been reliving the events that took place in the throne room, for quite a long while now. At first, she had been confused, and unsure of what was going on; she had not known that it was a dream then, and she thought maybe she was given the chance to do things differently.

 She had been thrilled when she thought that, and happy that maybe she could get Ben to turn to their side this time around. But that thought had been quickly destroyed, when she realized that it was really a dream, and she came about that when she noticed that she couldn’t do or say anything to change the events.

 All she could do is watch in repeat as Ben betrayed Snoke, and as they fought together against the praetorian guards. And after seeing the event play out a hundred times, she was mostly bored, and she kept wondering when the dream would just stop.

 Then there were other times when the dream would go to the part she absolutely hated; that part being when Ben turned her down for the throne. She honestly did not expect it to hurt as much as it did then, but she was mistaken; it hurt her deeply every time she relived that moment.

Every time Ben choose the dark side over her, it made her feel horrible, and in a way used. She thought that she was strong enough to turn him from the dark side, and she also, thought that she had formed a kinship with him, one that could not be broken.

 She thought she knew him, and that he would turn to the light side, but she had been utterly wrong. And now the dream was reminding her of her of her of her naivety, as if it was a punishment of sort, and she wondered when the dream would just stop bothering her, so that she could begin to move on.

 Of course now she understands completely that her decision had been foolish; there was no need for dreams to keep annoying her, and make her feel horrible. There even came a moment when she had even pleaded with her conciseness to stop the dream, but the end never came, and she remained stuck in the frustrating loop.

 Eventually there came a point when she had to think about other things to keep her mind busy, so that she wouldn’t go insane. Her mind wondered to many different things, the first thing being Finn, and she wondered if he was ok. She had after all, left him unconscious, and she kept feeling guilty that she didn’t stay to watch over him. And I turn she also, thought about the Resistance, and if they were out looking for her, and she wondered if they made it out alive.

 Thinking of the Resistance made her think of Leia, and she wondered if the General was worried for her, and if she had the bracelet that would lead her to Rey. She dearly hoped that Leia still had the bracelet, and that she knew where she was at the moment, because Rey had absolutely no clue.

 And after thinking of Leia, her mind drifted to Luke; Leia’s twin brother, and her Jedi master- if she could call him that. Luke had only given her three lessons, not really enough to earn the title of master for her. And not to mention that the high standards that Rey had once seen him, was shattered when she learned what he had been close to doing to a defenseless Ben.

That revelation, had really tarnished her respect for the older Jedi, and it even changed her view of Ben; who she saw more of a victim, than a true monster. She honestly did not understand how Luke could possibly even think of killing Ben, his own nephew! It truly angered her, but even through all her anger she didn’t think she truly hated the man, and that was because he only made one mistake- a horrible one, but still a mistake. And no matter how big, and terrible that mistake was, she couldn’t come to hate someone just because they made a slip up; she was not Ben, who could change his entire perspective over a moment of weakness, and a simple mistake.

She isn’t like that at all, she is the type of person that believes that one act of evil, and weakness could not erase all the good a person had done. And she also believed, that despite all the bad a person may have done, there was still hope of change, and that was why she didn’t want to give up on Ben, and even despite his decision she still had hope that he could change.

“No- no you’re still holding ON! Let go!” yelled Ben in her dream, and Rey snapped from her thoughts, and turned her attention back to the dream. She had seen this part many times before, and yet every time it came up she still turned back to look. And every single time she thought about it, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she had taken Ben’s hand.

But before she could delve too deeply into that thought, her musing was interrupted by the dream changing, and it was behaving differently than it ever did before. Making her wonder if the dream was finally changing.

With nothing ells she could do, she simply watched as the dream changed from the throne room, to a cozy apartment she had never been to. And at first she was confuse as to where she was, or why her conscious brought her to this place. But then she heard a joyous laugh, and she turned her head and saw a young boy enter the dream laughing and playing with an X-Wing.

Upon seeing the boy’s face her hear tighten, she knew who that was instantly. It was hard not to know after seeing the boy’s large, yet adorable ears sticking out his long black hair. She knew without a doubt that she was looking at Ben when he was just a child, and she couldn’t help but smile at the carefree and adorable boy he once was.

And for a moment she was worried that she would startle him, but then she remembered that she was in a dream. And that she couldn’t do anything to interfere with the dream, even though she really wanted to run to the young boy and hug him as hard as possible. But even though she couldn’t she was glad to simply just stand by, and watch a much better version of Ben Solo- that she knew still existed somewhere inside the monster of Kylo Ren.

Rey laughed, and smiled along with Ben as he jumped and ran around the apartment, making a mess of things. She truly preferred this dream over the other one, and she didn’t want it to end- she was happy to just watch Ben play with his toy.

Naturally her wishes were not fulfilled, and the carefree nature did not last for very long, as Han Solo entered the picture, and she felt her heart stop for a moment. She was overcome with great sadness at seeing the man she came to respect, but even that did not last very long as her sadness turned into confusion when she saw how he was treating Ben.

She didn’t understand what was happening, and why Han was telling Ben not to use the force, he and Leia should know that the force is very much a part of Ben, and telling someone to not tap into it was unrealistic. With her it had been different since she didn’t know she had the force, until much later, when she had driven Ben out of her mind.

But Ben was different from her, he knew that he was force sensitive from a very young age, and he clearly knew how to use it to some extent. And she had always thought that Leia, and Han would be proud, and happy that their son is force sensitive.

Apparently she was wrong, as she realized that Leia and Han did not appear to have wanted a force sensitive child, and this grieve her. To think that Ben had to constantly be reminded, and told to be someone he is not simply because his parents did not want him to be force sensitive. But even her grief changed, when the dream shifted to a different one.

The first thing she noticed this time was slightly older Ben, who was crying, and listening to the conversation his parents were having about him. And this time she was overcome with the need to hug him, and console the young child. But she knew that she could not, so she listened to the conversation instead.

And once again she was confused at the conversation Leia, and Han were having. It truly hurt her to hear that Han wanted to send Ben away, as a way to deal with the force problem he was having. And for once felt angry at Han; that he would send his own son away almost as a way to sweep his problems under a rug, and forget them. And she felt great sorrow towards Ben, who she started seeing as a victim.   

Until this point she had always seen him as a monster created by Snoke, when really it was his own family who had created the monster that is Kylo Ren. And she could only imagine how worthless Ben must have felt when his own family sent him away, as if he was a pest, or a monster that they couldn’t deal with. And only to be treated even worse by Luke, who in a moment of weakness wanted to kill Ben, as an easy way to deal with the darkness growing inside of him.

And once more the dream changed to darkness, and all she could hear were the voices of Ben and Han. She felt her heart tighten once again when she heard the broken voice of Ben telling his father that he will miss him. And Rey wanted to beg Han to take Ben and not send him away, and it shocked her to feel how much she truly wanted that. Even in her own dream of the throne room, she had not wanted to change events so much.

But before she could attempt anything; the dream changed, and she could heard the familiar voice of Ben when he was much older, and that of Han Solo. And she knew from what was being said, that they were in _Starkiller_ base, and that this was when Kylo Ren had taken his father’s life.

For the first time since the event, Rey understood Ben reasoning behind killing his father. She did not for once agreed with him, but at least she could understand why he had done it after seeing that Han had given Ben away like he meant nothing.

But she also, saw herself sympathising with Han; who only ever wanted to right the wrong, and do what he should have done from the beginning- bring his son home. But it had been years too late, to regret his decision and to right the wrong he once committed. Ben Solo was dead, and Kylo Ren was the once who took his place with the help of Snoke, and Luke Skywalker.

And so when the inevitable moment came, and she heard Kylo’s lightsaber pierce Han’s flesh; for once she didn’t feel like she was being overcome with sadness, after seeing the memory. But also, found herself hating Ben, but not as fiercely as she did before. After all she too was given up by her parents like she was nothing to them, and she knew how that could hurt someone, and even change them.

But again she could not think further on the subject, because all the voices disappeared, and this time there were no other dreams to keep her company.

She was clouded in darkness without a sense of being or sound, and she found this was worse than having to relieve the events of the throne room over, and over again, because at least then she had something to occupy her time.

In this place she was in some form of limbo, and stuck in a place where nothing really existed and it made her question everything. And she was becoming more and more frustratingly bored as she went from topic to topic. And she even thought about her parents, and what Ben had said about their origins and wondered if he was right. Were her parents’ junk traders, who sold her off? Or was there more to her story that even Ben did not know of.

She did not know, and would not find out if she stayed in the dream, or vision, or whatever it was; she needed to find a way to get out of it.

Determined now more than ever, Rey fought back against her conscious to exit her dream state. There were just far too many things for her to do, she still needed to go back to the Resistance and check back on Finn, and make sure that Leia wasn’t worrying too much about her. And she definitely needed to get Luke off his ass, out of the Ahch-to, and into the fighting.

There was much for her to do to remain dreaming, and so she pushed against the fog of sleep with everything she had; throwing herself against it with everything she had, until finally she broke through.

* * *

 

Rey opened her eyes slowly, as if the very action of opening her eyelids pained her, and required all of her energy to do.

She focused her eyes, trying to make out where she was, but found everything blurry as if she was seeing through fog. And Rey did not want to blink to refocus her eyes due to all the effort she had to do to open them. But she also, wanted to know where she was and find a way to get to the Resistance.

Fortunately her decision was made for her when she felt her eyes get uncomfortably dry, and she had no choice but to blink. And just like she speculated, blinking took a lot effort as if she had weights on her eyelids.

And this made her wonder; if the very action of blinking took so much effort she could only imagine how much effort it would take to move an arm. And Rey quickly put herself to the test, and attempted to move her left arm- and as she thought, moving her arm was near impossible since it felt like it weighed a ton.

Rey flared her nostrils taking in a deep breath trying to calm herself down, knowing that she was quickly becoming anxious at her current predicament. And she knew better than anyone that getting emotional and frustrated would not help her at all. Besides losing control of her emotions is something that Ben would do, and she refused to be like him. Not to mention that she needed to get to the Resistance, which would be much easier with a level headed mind.

Rey closed her eyes seeing as her vision was not getting better, and keeping them open was wasting energy she clearly did not have. And just as she closed them she set out to find out what was wrong with her body.

She knew that it could not be exhaustion, or overuse of her muscles that was causing this, this level of muscle fatigue was simply too high to have come about naturally. So this left her with one answer; somebody did something to her body to make her this exhausted, probably to make sure that she couldn’t move. And whoever was responsible for doing this to her had to be somebody that knew that she was force sensitive, and that narrowed the list to two military groups- the Order, and the Resistance.

Of course the Resistance would not have done this to her, so that only left the Order, and she was not surprised by the realization. She guessed that she was captured by the Order since she had been onboard one of their cruisers before falling unconscious; being imprisoned by them did not surprise her one bit.

But this didn’t mean that it did not scare her to be imprisoned by them; she knew as anyone in the galaxy knew that the First Order is known for the merciless way they treat their prisoners. And even though she managed to escape once, she knew that this time around she wouldn’t be so lucky.

This time Ben knew that she is force sensitive, and that she knew how to use it to some extent so he would take necessary measures to keep her imprisoned. And he clearly had done just that, because she couldn’t possibly lift a finger much less get herself out of the cell. Also, Ben and she are now connected through a bond, making it impossible for her to hide from him, since all he had to do was tap into the bond and he would know right away if she was attempting to escape.

Clearly the odds were not in her favour this time, and she couldn’t see a way out of her predicament. And at the realization she felt her fear rise, and she took a shaky breath attempting to keep the fear from rising, but unlike before she was failing.

She hated fear, always had always will. And that is because fear she always found- was much more difficult to control than any other emotions, since once it gripped you it overpowered everything. And she figured that, that was the reason why the Sith used fear, since it is such a powerful emotion and one that can easily give someone strength.

But that was not the emotion she wanted, she did not want the strength that it provided her; she knew that fear would not help her stay focused, and come up with a plan to get her out of her situation. But she would be lying to herself if she denied that she was having problems controlling the emotion, and she found herself failing miserably every time she imagined what the Order would do to her.

At the thought she felt herself slowly nearing the dark abyss, just like she did back on Ahch-to and she feared dwelling into it, and in that moment she thought of the only person she could think about. What would Luke do if he was in her place she wondered.

She knew that Luke would be afraid too, but she also, knew that Luke would not allow his fears to overtake him. And she knew above all ells that Luke would exasperatedly tell her to drive out the fear, and focus on herself, and what was around her.

So Rey took the made up advice, and focused inwards focusing on one and every emotion one by one. Since fear was overpowering everything ells it was difficult to separate, and make out her other emotions, but she eventually managed to focus on a few which were sadness, and anger.

But like fear she found them to be just as erratic, and something she clearly did not need at the moment. So she searched deeply inside herself, looking for one good emotion in her until she found a little speck of happiness inside of her.

Rey quickly grasped the fleeing emotion with a vice grip, and she knew as soon as she focused on the emotion that it had originated from the dream of young Ben playing with his X-Wing.

Not really thinking too much about it, and not really caring at the moment; Rey focused on the memory of Ben as he jumped around the living room playing so carefree, and happily. And as the more she thought about it, the easier it was to drive out her fears and over power them with an equally strong emotion. And she found herself focusing once more, and the first thing she did was to look inside herself as Luke had taught her, and look for any disturbances, or anything out of place inside of her.

Rey looked deep inside of her, using all her new found focus for the task until she finally found something odd fighting inside of her. And she knew that it must be a drug of some form, seeing at how chaotic, and vicious it was; a clear contrast to her harmonious system.

And Rey without thinking it through pushed through the violent drug inside of her, fighting it full on. Well she called it a fight, but it really wasn’t much of a fight, since she was using her connection to the force, to burn the foreign liquid inside of her until in evaporated.

Upon destroying the drug she unconsciously sat up on her spot, with little effort, and she crossed her legs, and rested her hands atop of her knees in a mediating pose. And took a deep breath, feeling at peace meditating.

As she meditated she couldn’t help herself but to reach out to anything she could find, and figure out where she was. And she was glad when she felt the presence of other people, and she was glad because they at least did not take this away from her- that she could still use the force.

“Impressive” said a deep voice. And Rey’s peaceful, and relaxed state broke in half, and she took a shaky breath knowing full well who the voice belonged to.

Rey hesitantly opened her eyes, not because of exhaustion this time, but because she was afraid to look at the man she knew would be in front of her.  And just as she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was Ben leaning back on the walls of the room, with his arms crossed.

He was wearing his usual attire, but instead of his usual cloak he was wearing a silky black cape that was latched on to his shoulders with beautifully adorned red pins. It was only a small change, but it made him look slightly more elegant, and less rugged and fearsome. And Rey also, noticed another small difference in him on his left arm which was being covered by his right arm, but before she could look further into it, Ben spoke up again.

“Was it Skywalker who taught you how to use the force for healing? Or did you simply learn it by yourself?” he asked intrigued.

Rey turned her gaze away from his arms, and stared at him confounded and still in shocked of seeing him. And she couldn’t help herself, but stare at him without saying a word, and she could tell that he was becoming annoyed at her due to his tensing shoulders.

“Force healing is an intricate and complicated skill, and one that not many can learn. And for as long as I knew Skywalker he never showed any signs of having this skills, so I need to know if that changed or not.” Ben pushed off of the wall, but still kept his hands folded tightly against his chest.

Rey narrowed her eyes, and looked at him stubbornly unwilling to tell him anything. She may have feared him just a few days ago, but after everything that happened in Ahch-to, and in the throne room she found herself seeing him less as a monster.

Ben huffed softly, clearly annoyed that she wasn’t answering his question.

“You know very well that I can rip the information from your mind. You may have been able to stop me before, but not this time- I will get the information that I need, no matter how long it takes me.” He took a step forward, bringing himself slightly closer to her but not close enough to loom at her.

“Yes I’m sure you would love to force my memories out of me; just like you completely disregard my decision, when I clearly choose not to join you. And why would you need this information anyways, it’s not like it would help you or the Order in any way.” She declared, and her voice full of anger, and determination.

She watched as his shoulder slacked slightly hesitating, and he tried to hide the hesitation. Telling him that he took her choice from her clearly affected her, after what little she knew of him he should know what that felt like.

Ben looked at her in the eyes for a moment considering her, as if wondering if he should indulge his reason to know if Luke had taught her or not. He probably knew that Rey would not tell him anything before explaining himself first.

“I want to know my enemy as much as possible, and I want to be as prepared as possible. Since I know that a fight between me and Skywalker is inevitable.” He admitted.

Rey looked at him considering his answer, and wondering if he lied to her or was really telling the truth. And Ben raised an eyebrow in turn, as a way to tell her that it was her turn to share information. “Luke didn’t teach me, I didn’t even know what I was doing was called force healing. I just wanted to be able to move, and I meditated like Luke instructed me and then it just sort of happened.”

 Ben looked at her face, and examined her as if he could tell if she was lying or not. And it seemed that he was convinced with her answer, because he didn’t press her further, and instead changed the topic.

“I’m sure you have questions about your current whereabouts, and about what happened.”

Ben stepped away from her, and turned slightly away, but he still kept looking at her. And Rey shifted her weight around, as a way to relieve her limbs and anxiety at finally reaching the topic she wanted to speak about.

“Not really, I figured long ago that I must be held somewhere in the Order. But I do have one question about what happened after you killed Snoke.” She shifted on her spot some more before continuing. “Why did you disregard my decision, and bring me to the Order? Whey let me make the choice if you were planning to neglect my decision in the first place?” She hissed through gritted teeth, getting more and more angry at him as she spoke.

And like before Ben slumped his shoulders as if uncomfortable, and self-conscious. And this time she could see his eyes losing their determined glint, and he didn’t answer her question right away. “I couldn’t very well let you go back to the Resistance. And besides I saw your future, and I know that you will turn- so why should we keep avoiding the inevitable” he declared fiercely, as if his words could give him back his lost confidence.

Rey’s eyes widened at his answer, and she looked at him in shock, and then she closed her eyes in defeat, and she turned her head away from him. His answer should not have surprised her, she should already know by now that it was Kylo Ren she was speaking to- not Ben Solo.

“Well then you should have just demanded me to come with you, it would have made things easier” She sighed, and she looked away from him not wanting to see his face at the moment.

“Why would that be easier? You would still be here regardless, even if I had demanded you to join me or not” He said confused, and he turned to face her once more, but Rey did not look up at him, but she did open her eyes.

“Because it would make you look more like a monster, and less like a human being that at least tried to make a good act of kindness towards another human being.” She took a breath “I lived on Jakku I know what taking someone’s choices and freedom look like. And to me those people were always the worst in the galaxy, and easy to hate. It’s sad that I am starting to see you that way”

At her words the room was drowned in silence, and neither she nor Ben were moving. And Rey lost her determination to look away from him. She needed to know what he was feeling after she said that, she needed to know if he at least felt self-conscious at her words or regret.

Rey slowly lifted her head and looked at him, and saw an expression she had never seen on him before. His eyes were furrowed, and his eyes completely lost their determination and were filled with sadness and guilt instead.

And Rey instead of feeling sorry for him, she felt glad that he was at least showing another emotion apart from hate, or anger. And glad that he was at least capable of feeling guilt, and that her words had affected him. It showed her, and gave her even more determination knowing that Ben Solo was still somewhere in there.

But the moment didn’t last very long, because as soon as Ben’s emotions came they went. Ben wiped the guilt and sadness from his face, and changed his face back to a stoic one. But no matter what he did the damage was done; she had already seen his emotions.

“You are going to join, and if keeping you confined in here will grant me that then so be it.”

He turned completely away from her, and Rey was about to refute but he spoke once more. “And don’t even think about escaping. If you so much as make a dent on the walls I will know, and I will be here long before you manage to make a scratch on this walls” He added, without turning to look at her.

Rey’s relief and happiness that she had reached Ben were also, wiped from her, and was now angry at him. She wanted to say more, and yell at him and tell him that he could not cage her like an animal. But she had lost all or her energy, she felt exhausted, and all she wanted to do was go back sleep and pretend that nothing had happened, and that she was back on Jakku still a scavenger. She shifted around her bed until her back was facing Ben, and the action made her feel like a child, but then again he too was acting like a child.

With nothing to say to one another, she heard the locked doors slide open, but she didn’t hear any footstep signalling that Ben was exiting the cell. “Tomorrow a medical droid will come to your cell and check up on your new robotic arm.” He sighed as if in defeat, and without any energy to keep fighting her.

“I am sorry that I had to take your freedom away from you, but it was either that or allow the General execute you for the death of Snoke. And I am also, sorry about your arm; I had the medical droids implant the robotic arm as soon as possible, but it was far too late to connect the nerves to the arm”

Rey’s eyes widened at his words, and could not believe that Ben was apologizing for anything. Or that he was explaining his action to her, as if her opinion of him mattered to him. She was also, shocked about the robotic arm she truly had not noticed it since she was to focus on other things. But now that he brought it up, she could slightly feel the metal prosthetic that was now her arm, and like he said she could barely feel anything from it.

“Don’t take my apology for granted, because odds are that you will never hear it again. And don’t think that it changes anything- you will still join me.” And with that Ben left the cell, and the door quickly slid shut behind him. Leaving Rey alone with her thoughts, once more

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well this chapter didn’t have that much interaction between Rey and Kylo, but I promise that, that will change in the next few chapters. Also, Hux is still very much part of this story, but I feel that Kylo and Rey need to solve their problems first before he can be introduced into the dynamic, so we won’t see our favourite redhead any time soon. Also, I wanted to make this chapter similar to Kylo’s, that’s why some of you may find some similarities between the two.
> 
> Also, as some of you may know I have another fan fiction called Through the test of time, and writing a chapter weekly for both is really difficult, and time consuming. So I regret to say that I will need to start posting a chapter biweekly, that way I can keep up with both stories, so expect the next chapter to be uploaded on the 27th. And I will also revise, and change all of the previous chapters since I got a beta reader on board.
> 
> see you in two weeks.


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